Hi there,

in our company, a couple of people have brought up the idea
of creating a Java application that maintains and
categorizes pieces of Java (and possibly other) code, so
people doing new development could reuse stuff others have
done before them.

Since this is probably a larger task, buying some commercial
product would definitely be an alternative, so my question
is: Has anybody ever come across an application like this?
Requirements or at least nice-to-haves are full text index and integration into CVS.

Or (if we decide to build a solution on our own): Are there
any web pages out there that deal with this subject and
give some hints about possible strategies, algorithms and
patterns?

Thanks in advance,
Jens

Trying to reuse code fragments runs counter to good Object-Oriented design. If you want to reuse code, you ought to put that code into its own class, and then reuse the class itself. Developing and maintaining a good class library is the best way to get good reuse.

The only case where this might not be practical is if you want to reuse a design pattern of some kind. In that case, you are better off using some kind of code generation strategy. Look at XDoclet or VDoclet or any of a variety of books and articles on code generation.