This paper describes the results of a long-term empirical investigation into object-oriented framework reuse. The aim is to identify the major problems that occur during framework reuse and the impact of current documentation techniques on these problems. Four major reuse problems are identified: understanding the functionality of framework components; understanding the interactions between framework components; understanding the mapping from the problem domain to the framework implementation; understanding the architectural assumptions in the framework design. Two forms of documentation are identified as having the potential to address these problems, namely pattern languages and micro-architecture descriptions. An in-depth, qualitative analysis suggests that, although pattern languages do provide useful support in terms of introducing framework concepts, this can be bypassed by developers using their previous knowledge, occasionally to the detriment of the final solution. Micro-architecture documentation appears to provide support for simple interaction and functionality queries, but it is not able to address large scale interaction problems involving multiple classes within the framework. The paper concludes that, although a combination of pattern language and microarchitecture documentation is useful for framework reuse, the forms of these documentation types used in this study require further enhancement to become effective. The paper also serves as an example to encourage others to perform evaluation of framework understanding and documentation

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Frameworks are an attractive form of reuse due to their paradigmatic simplicity. Unfortunately their size and complexity makes understanding how to use them difficult. In addition documentation to support framework reuse often lacks experimental validation and there is little understanding of what artefacts must be documented to increase the effectiveness of documentation techniques. This report describes an empirical investigation into framework reuse. Its aim is to identify the major problems of reuse and the impact of current documentation techniques on these problems. A qualitative approach is employed and developer experiences are captured from three separate reuse studies using multiple forms of data capture. Four major reuse problems are identified by this report. Understanding the functionality of components; the interactions between component; the mapping from the problem domain to the framework implementation and understanding the architectural assumptions in the framework design. The effectiveness of current forms of documentation is evaluated using these problem categories and, as a result, a number of suggestions for improving developer support during reuse are made

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