Object-oriented Use Research Articles

From visual perception to inferential evidentiality1

Many languages use verbs of perception to express evidentiality. This paper studies the evidential use of the object-oriented perception verb eruitzien ‘look’ in Dutch. The results of a Twitter corpus study show that, whereas ziet eruit alsof ‘looks as if’ occasionally comes with an evidential interpretation, the construction ziet ernaar uit ‘looks like’ predominantly expresses inferential evidentiality. A diachronic investigation shows how the evidential reading of this construction developed from the object-oriented use of the verb, through a stage in which the construction is used to mark a prediction. This predictive reading, which is still available in present-day Dutch, is not evidential. It does not indicate a speaker has supporting evidence for a factual claim, but rather they have evidence for something they expect to become a fact in the near future. Our diachronic study also reveals how another construction, with a subject-oriented verb (eruit) zien ‘see (from it)’, once used to be an expression of inferential evidentiality as well. This particular construction appears to have lost the competition to its object-oriented counterpart ziet ernaar uit ‘looks like’, as it is no longer attested. We argue that the construction ziet ernaar uit ‘looks like’ has fully developed into an evidential construction, since its current primary function is to express evidentiality.

Design and Development of a Procedure for New ObjectOriented Design Metrics

paper introduces a procedure that has been developed for evaluating an object-oriented design of a system that involves many classes. This approach involves two new metrics called Total Class Metric (TCM) and Total System Metric (TSM) that assess the design of a class and system as a whole respectively during object-oriented development process. In the increasing use of object-orientation in software development, there is a growing need to measure efficiency and effectiveness of the design process. In response to this need, a number of researchers have developed various metrics for object-oriented systems. A procedure has been introduced for evaluating the effectiveness of the object-oriented design of a system for the improvement of the software process instead of using individual design metrics. The total class metric is defined based on a set of seven metrics which have been formulated using main attributes and significant characteristics of an object-oriented design of the system. This research paper discusses in detail about the new approach, total class metric and total system metric to represent the single quality value for the entire system design to judge the effectiveness of the design. These metrics will be useful in measuring object-oriented design and feedback system of software measurement thus yielding an effective object-oriented design.

Spatial process and data models: Toward integration of agent-based models and GIS

The use of object-orientation for both spatial data and spatial process models facilitates their integration, which can allow exploration and explanation of spatial-temporal phenomena. In order to better understand how tight coupling might proceed and to evaluate the possible functional and efficiency gains from such a tight coupling, we identify four key relationships affecting how geographic data (fields and objects) and agent-based process models can interact: identity, causal, temporal and topological. We discuss approaches to implementing tight integration, focusing on a middleware approach that links existing GIS and ABM development platforms, and illustrate the need and approaches with example agent-based models.

Object orientation in CS1-CS2 by design

This paper argues for a design driven approach to an object-oriented CS1-CS2 sequence in which object-orientation is thematic. Our approach integrates several components: (i) a strong object-oriented approach, (ii) design using UML, (iii) design patterns to manage complexity, and (iv) complex examples and projects to motivate the use of object-orientation and to motivate students by solving non-trivial problems. While this is a "programming-first" approach to CS1-CS2, it addresses several disadvantages of programming-first approaches noted in CC2001 [7]. The approach focuses on design rather than syntax, so students do not lose sight of the forest for the trees. We use (relatively speaking) large and complex examples, especially in the CS2 course, which allows us to address in a meaningful way issues of programming in the large. Because the approach is design driven and heavily object oriented, the course is not biased against novices in favor of students with prior programming experience, since CS1 students with prior programming experience typically have no design experience and only procedural programming experience.

Towards an understanding of the use of problem and design spaces during object-oriented system development

The importance of, and distinction between, problem and design spaces has been recognized in studies of information systems development (ISD). With increasing acceptance of object-oriented techniques, which promise close mirroring of real-world concepts in the IS artifacts, this distinction becomes even more important. In spite of a rich literature stream dealing with the general notion of ‘design,’ several inadequacies remain in our understanding of the ISD processes—one of these is the recognition and impact of problem and design spaces. In this paper, we analyze processes followed by two developers engaged in a non-trivial development task using the object-oriented modeling techniques—with a view to understanding their use of, and explorations in, problem and design spaces. Our analysis provides evidence for a distinction between the two spaces, and interprets the developers’ engagements and behaviors to structure the two spaces with the help of object-oriented modeling techniques. Several interesting findings emerge from our analysis, including the overlapping of spaces due to the use of object-orientation, disturbing patterns such as design fixation, interplay between simulation, expansion and validation in the design space, and the varying use of modeling techniques to structure the two spaces. Our analysis, supported by prior literature, provides a grounded description of some phenomena that have, hitherto, had only intuitive or prescriptive support. Based on these, we argue for more methodological and tool support for explorations of problem space, and enhancements to current approaches, for better integration of problem and design spaces.

A semantic object-oriented data access system

Lack of support for Entity-Relationship (E-R) semantics and the disconnect between object-oriented programming languages (OOPLs) and database languages remain key roadblocks to the effective use of object-orientation in information systems development. We present SOODAS, a Semantic Object-Oriented Data Access System that defines and manages the meta-data necessary to support E-R semantics and set level querying and provides related interface generation tools. SOODAS consists of five meta-classes. DomainObject and Relationship provide the capabilities needed to define and manage entities, attributes, relationships, external identifiers, and constraints. Together with the meta-class QueryNode, DomainObject provides an object-oriented, multi-entity querying capability. Queries can be arbitrarily complex and can include cycles and transitive closure. Persistence is provided by the meta-class, PermanentObject, of which DomainObject and Relationship are subclasses. The meta-class, DomainObjectInterface uses the meta-data in DomainObject and Relationship to generate a standard, re-usable interface for displaying and maintaining instances of any entity. Since SOODAS is implemented entirely in Smalltalk, it can be seamlessly integrated with any Smalltalk application.

Wrapping and interoperating bioinformatics resources using CORBA.

Bioinformaticians seeking to provide services to working biologists are faced with the twin problems of distribution and diversity of resources. Bioinformatics databases are distributed around the world and exist in many kinds of storage forms, platforms and access paradigms. To provide adequate services to biologists, these distributed and diverse resources have to interoperate seamlessly within single applications. The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) offers one technical solution to these problems. The key component of CORBA is its use of object orientation as an intermediate form to translate between different representations. This paper concentrates on an explanation of object orientation and how it can be used to overcome the problems of distribution and diversity by describing the interfaces between objects.

Object Orientation in Educational Software

SUMMARY Changing educational circumstances and improving technology are generating the need for a unified perspective of course design that applies to computer‐based courses and courseware. It should combine the principles of educational theory, employed in conventional teaching and learning, with programming methodology, to produce a framework that is compatible with both fields. In particular, it is interesting to see what advantages can be obtained from the use of object orientation, which has proved to be successful in other computing applications. An object‐oriented model is developed which combines the principles of course design with programming practice. It produces a hierarchical structure of modular objects, each of which combines syllabus content and educational methods in a self‐contained program. The structure has a number of advantages, in terms of programming, and some specific characteristics that may be regarded as educational advantages, compared to the more traditional, procedural approach.

Object Models for Distributed or Persistent Programming

As use of object orientation for application development has increased, many researchers have investigated the design of object-based programming languages for distributed and persistent programming. This paper concentrates on reviewing a number of such languages for distributed or persistent programming. In each case, the focus is on the object model supported and the mechanisms and policies employed in the implementation of distributed or persistent objects. In particular, each language reviewed has been chosen to illustrate a particular object model or implementation strategy.

Object Orientation in Hydraulic Modeling Architectures

A “separable” approach to the object-oriented design of modeling systems is presented. In it, the local behavior of an individual object is separated from the global behavior of the system, and the functional decomposition of the system is separated from its synthesis as a set of interacting objects—entities that encapsulate data and behavior. In a pipe network, elements such as pipes, junctions, pumps, and valves can be represented in the form of objects (so-called agents) encapsulating specific attributes and the behavior of each element. The behavior of the network as a whole is encapsulated in an object that controls agents (so-called actor). This approach is demonstrated in the design and implementation of an interactive water distribution modeling and design system, the hydraulic modeling system (HIS); an example of its application is given. The use of object orientation in constructing computer-based models is viewed as very promising in the field of hydraulic and environmental modeling, and especially in relation to promoting computer code reusability and model flexibility.

A processing model for two-dimensional images based on the object-oriented paradigm

The object-oriented paradigm is considered a natural and effective approach for image processing and analysis aims. Nevertheless, the use of object orientation within this complex realm has not undergone a rapid growth, as it happened in other fields where the paradigm has been introduced. We argue that one of the major motivations stems from the difficulty of conceiving a comprehensive framework for coping with the different abstraction levels and the several operations that an automated vision task requests. With the aim of overcoming such major drawback, in this paper we present a new model for the processing and the analysis of two-dimensional images based on the object-oriented paradigm. The model states an object-founded representation of images, it provides the possibility of handling heterogeneous data structures within the same image, and it designs image processors on the basis of both the protocol of interaction with images, and their processing behavior. Examples are given and results are discussed with respect to related work in the literature © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hydroinformatics: Further steps into object orientation

In a world of ever changing information technologies, involving software as well as hardware developments, it is only natural that hydroinformatics must position itself within these possibilities and developments. Even though hydroinformatics mostly is living within the conditions set by the world of information technology in general, in some cases hydroinformatics may push these developments in desired directions, and in even more cases hydroinformatics must add functionality to such technologies in order to make them complete and so useful.One such new technique is object orientation. This paper discuss how the use of object orientation, and the consequences that flow from that use, will influence the way in which hydroinformatics systems will be implemented in the future. At the same time, certain areas are indicated which have a great potential for hydroinformatics, areas where standardisation and developments are still missing and where hydroinformatics may have to contribute actively before real-wor...

An object‐oriented analysis of a BISDN control system with a focus on the UNI protocol object

AbstractThe control system of a BISDN network will undoubtedly be very complex to design, implement and maintain. Its complexity has led researchers to look for ways of breaking down the problem into smaller and manageable parts. This has motivated the use of an object‐oriented approach to analyse and comprehend the BISDN control system.This paper thus presents an object‐oriented analysis (OOA) of a BISDN control system. This analysis is based on a method introduced by Coad and Yourdon and comprises five steps. All five steps, namely identifying subjects, identifying objects, identifying structures, defining attributes, and defining operations, will be worked out in detail with an emphasis on the user network interface (UNI) signalling protocol object. Four subjects, nine objects, and three structures are identified in the problem space at hand. This structuring offers a framework to analyse in detail the three aspects, data, structure and dynamic behaviour, of the UNI signalling protocol.A parallel between this approach and the well known approach used by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for specifying signalling protocols and contained in Recommendation I.130 is drawn.The Coad and Yourdon OOA approach applied to a BISDN control system can be used for the analysis of different aspects of such systems. This paper focuses on the UNI signalling protocol object which leads to a complete specification. Any protocol resulting from such analysis can be claimed to be object‐oriented protocol. This approach offers modularity and thus offers a way of structuring the problem space into identifiable objects and data. Full benefits of object orientation can be gained only in the consistent use of object orientation throughout all steps in the development process. The proposed approach allows one to create libraries of generic procedures which can be reused in specific implementations.