Software researchers need case studies to validate new tools and methods of object-oriented software design. A good thing to do is to standardize on a set of open source frameworks and libraries that are known and available to everyone. Basically, a benchmark set for new tools and methods in object-oriented software design. JUnit and JHotDraw come to mind.
Most open source frameworks and libraries that are being used in research studies have little original documentation associated with them. However, I as well as others have written up such documentation. Here are those frameworks that I see increasingly being used in scientific studies, as well as any design documentation documentation that I may have provided.
- JUnit, JUnit 3.8 Design Documentation
- JHotDraw, JHotDraw 5.1 Design Documentation
- JEdit, …
I would also like to offer up JValue, a self-contained framework for value objects in Java that has been in productive use at one of my former employers and that I put out as open source. It is very cleanly implemented and has a great design pattern story associated with it, see its documentation.
I don’t have the complete revision history of JValue available on the net right now but I can provide it upon request (or will do so anyway as soon as I find the time).
There are many more such frameworks, so please let me know if you’ve seen some that both have been used more than once in scientific case studies or validations and for which you know good design documentation. Thanks!
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