On the specification of a component repository

The lack of a commonly accepted definition of a software component, the proliferation of competing ‘standards’ and component frameworks, is here to stay, raising the fundamental question in component-based development of how to cope in practice with heterogeneity. This paper reports on the design of a Component Repository aimed to give at least a partial answer to the above question. The repository was fully specified in Vdm and a working prototype is currently being used in an industrial environment.