Software Reuse in Hypermedia Applications

Abstract

In the hypermedia communication process, authors are connected to readers through hypermedia applications. The underlying software is an important part of the “communication channel” between authors and readers: it is effective if it is “transparent.” This means that hypermedia software must be flexible and powerful, to support naïve users as well as “experienced navigators;” it must be developed and tested before contents, because contents, in real projects, are released very late; it must be robust and error-free; and finally it must be inexpensive with respect to contents, because contents are the focus of the production effort. For all these reasons, the run-time software must be contents independent and application independent; in fact, it can be powerful enough only if its development costs can be shared over a large number of projects. Two applications, built around a reusable run-time engine based on the previous considerations, are presented in the paper.