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European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming

ECOOP 2007: ECOOP 2007 – Object-Oriented Programming pp 425–449Cite as

A Higher Abstraction Level Using First-Class Inheritance Relations

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 4609))

Abstract

Although classes are a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming, a class itself cannot be built using general purpose classes as building blocks in a practical manner. High-level concepts like associations, bounded values, graph structures, and infrastructure for event mechanisms which form the foundation of a class cannot be reused conveniently as components for classes. As a result, they are implemented over and over again.

We raise the abstraction level of the language with a code inheritance relation for reusing general purpose classes as components for other classes. Features like mass renaming, first-class relations, high-level dependencies, component parameters, and indirect inheritance ensure that maximal reuse can be achieved with minimal effort.

A case study shows a reduction of the code between 21% and 36%, while the closest competitor only reduces the size between 3% and 12%.

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  1. Department of Computer Science, K.U.Leuven,  

    Marko van Dooren & Eric Steegmans

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  1. Marko van Dooren
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  2. Eric Steegmans
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Erik Ernst

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van Dooren, M., Steegmans, E. (2007). A Higher Abstraction Level Using First-Class Inheritance Relations. In: Ernst, E. (eds) ECOOP 2007 – Object-Oriented Programming. ECOOP 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4609. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73589-2_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73589-2_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-73588-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-73589-2

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