A Novel Clone-based Reuse Method to Maintain Proficiency in Software Engineering Practice: An Overview

The source code of an application paves way for a quality software product. Quality software in-turn
helps in imposing software reuse. In this paper, pieces of similar codes also known as code clones or
code duplications are considered as reusable software components. In general code clones are
considered harmful in software engineering practice. They are considered to degrade the quality of
software. Code clones are detected and removed without further processing. In this paper, a tokenbased
CodeClone reuse method is proposed to detect type- 1 and type-4 clones. Positive effects of
clones are analyzed and beneficial clones are extracted from the cluster of clones detected. The
proposed method aids in the art of developing software thereby enforcing the concept of software
reuse. The working principle of the proposed method is implemented using open source software as
inputs. Beneficial clones are further stored in a database for future use. This database will be used
while developing a software system, which indirectly leads to software component reuse. This clonebased
software reuse is evaluated based on standard software reuse metrics and models. The
primary objective of this proposed methodology is to meet the requirements, to encourage and to
support small-scale organizations in terms of software reuse.i.e. quality products with minimum
investment. Clone report is generated as it assists in knowing about the clone details within a
software system.