REMODULARIZATION, REUSABILTY, AND REPLACEABILITY

The issue of whether a remodularization should be carried out depends on the specific objectives of an organization. However the main objective of remodularizing a program is to achieve Information Hiding (Parn71). Thus the greater the number of variables, constants, and performed paragraphs that can be moved to the sub-program, the greater the amount of information-hiding (with respect to the original program) that is achieved.

We have carried out some experiments with programs written in MicroFocus COBOL using extended ACCEPTs and DISPLAYs, and found that quite elaborate screen-handling logic and data could be factored out of a "main" program through remodularization, thereby making it easier to modify presentational aspects of the dialogue, or even to migrate to a completely new screen-handling facility. That is, the screen-handling logic is much more easily replaced after this kind of remodularization, thus increasing the reuseability of the "main" program, by enabling it to exist in, or survive changes to, the presentational aspects of the interaction and of the platforms used to implement the presentational aspects of the interaction.