A framework for encapsulating card-oriented, interactive, legacy applications

Over the last several years Lockheed Martin has invested IR&D funds to explore lowering the cost of ownership of Command and Control systems for DoD software intensive systems. Two key technologies that address this issue are developing software components that can be reused across a family of systems within the command and control domain and methods for reusing legacy system applications. This paper describes how these two approaches have been merged using Object Oriented Technology to provide a reusable framework for encapsulating legacy applications.The Object Oriented Technology (OOT) that we consider key to lowering cost of ownership and to strategies for reuse of legacy code is described as Design Patterns [Gamma] and Frameworks[Coplien]. Design Patterns exist at a level of abstraction that provides a high return on reuse investment because they model stable relationships that are not likely to change as a system evolves and which can be reused across systems [Coplien]. It is not the intent of this paper to describe these terms. Rather it is our purpose to illustrate the advantages of this level of OOT.