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“Real World” as an Argument for Covariant Specialization in Programming and Modeling

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Book cover Advances in Object-Oriented Information Systems (OOIS 2002)

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Abstract

Class specialization is undoubtedly one of the most original and powerful features of object orientation as it structures object models at all stages of software development. Unfortunately, the semantics of specialization is not defined with the same accuracy in the various fields. In programming languages, specialization is constrained by type theory and by a type safe policy, whereas its common sense semantics dates back to the Aristotelian tradition. The well known covariant vs. contravariant controversy originates here. In this paper, we investigate how modeling and programming languages deal with this mismatch. We claim that type errors are part of the real world, so they should be taken into account at all stages of software development. Modeling as well as programming languages should adopt a covariant policy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. L.I.R.M.M., Université Montpellier 2, 161, rue Ada, 34392, Montpellier cedex 5, France

    Roland Ducournau

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  1. Roland Ducournau
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. LIUPPA, Computer Science Research Department, University of Pau, B.P. 1155, 64013, Pau Cedex, France

    Jean-Michel Bruel

  2. LIRMM, 161 rue Ada, 34392, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Zohra Bellahsene

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ducournau, R. (2002). “Real World” as an Argument for Covariant Specialization in Programming and Modeling. In: Bruel, JM., Bellahsene, Z. (eds) Advances in Object-Oriented Information Systems. OOIS 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2426. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46105-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46105-1_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-44088-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46105-0

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