A Taxonomy of Software Composition Mechanisms

Software composition aims to provide mechanisms for systematic construction based on well-defined software units. Various software composition mechanisms have been defined in the literature for different kinds of software units. In component-based development, it is desirable to have software units and composition mechanisms that support automated, systematic construction. In this paper, we first survey existing definitions of composition units and the corresponding composition mechanisms, and then use the survey to propose a taxonomy that identifies good candidates for composition units and composition mechanisms for component-based development.