Strategies for seeking reusable components in Smalltalk

Although object-oriented languages can help make software more reusable, class libraries can be difficult to use unless the programmer knows the library well. In particular, it can be hard to find and understand components that a programmer may want to reuse. This study focuses on novice programmers solving programming tasks which require the reuse of components. We take an in-depth look at how the programmers find the necessary components, and identify strategies that they use to achieve it. We also comment on the type of tool that is necessary from the viewpoint of the strategies.