9804061 Reusable object-oriented software components often must be adapted to fit into a new application that also uses other, independently developed components. This research investigates Binary Component Adaptation (BCA), a new way to integrate components. Component adaptation takes place after the component has been delivered to the reusing programmer, and the component is directly modified in place in order to make changes. By directly rewriting binaries, BCA combines the flexibility of source-level changes without incurring its disadvantages. BCA can rewrite component binaries at load time and also guarantees release-to-release compatibility. That is, an adaptation is guaranteed to be compatible with a new binary release of the underlying component as long as the release does not modify the public interface except by adding new elements. A BCA system will be constructed for Java to show that an efficient implementation is feasible, and will be made available publicly to allow an evaluation of BCA's usefulness based on the feedback received from external users. BCA promises to solve a number of important integration and evolution problems; if successful, it could significantly improve the reusability of Java components, thus reducing software development costs.***
