On the specification of a component repository

On the specification of a component repository (preprint)
N. Rodrigues and L. S. Barbosa. In Hung~Dang Van and Zhiming Liu, editors, FACS'03, Proc. 1st Int. Workshop on Formal Approaches to Component Software, pp 47--62, Pisa, Italy, September, 2003.

Abstract

The lack of a commonly accepted definition of a software component, the proliferation of competing `standards' and component frameworks, is here to stay, raising the fundamental question in component-based development of how to cope in practice with heterogeneity. This paper reports on the design of a Component Repository aimed to give at least a partial answer to the above question. The repository was fully specified in VDM and a working prototype is currently being used in an industrial environment.