Modeling and reuse perspectives of inheritance can be reconciled

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new approach to integrate the two views of inheritance, conceptual modeling and code reuse. These two viewpoints are usually at odds i.e. to maximize reuse one should sacrifice modeling and vice versa. The integration of the two viewpoints in an object-oriented language is important, because both uses of inheritance are legitimate and useful. The integration takes place at two levels: code reuse occurs at the component-level and conceptual modeling occurs at the class-level. A component is a new abstraction mechanism similar to a class. In other words, we use two separate constructs to distinguish between the two perspectives of inheritance. The new approach enhances the use of inheritance as a code reuse and as a conceptual modeling tool.