Mostly reuse: another code sharing option

Abstract

The classification of code as reused or leveraged is an oversimplification of a problem which forces too many soflware components to be treated as leveraged code. If we at Hewlett Packard-San Diego Division were forced to continue to pay the high cost of traditional leverage for all code that was not absolutely identical in each instantiation, we could not remain competitive. We began to look at the difference between leverage and reuse as a continuum and found that a code classification known as “Mostly Reuse” is very common and can be handled much more efllciently than traditional leverage. This has allowed us to develop derivative products much quicker and cheaper than before.