Abstract

ion Theory & Practical Language Issues * Bent Bruun Kristensen and Kasper Østerbye Institute for Electronic Systems, Aalborg University Fredrik Bajers Vej 7, DK-9220 Aalborg Ø, Denmark The notion of a role of an object subsumes a set of properties of the object. The identification of such sets of properties is important for an object in order to be able to behave in a certain way expected by other objects. The role represents the perspective of some objects, and the perspective enforces properties onto the object in question, -- properties that are only present due to the perspective. Role properties must be accepted by an object itself, and recognized by the clients of the object as well. The notion of role may be seen both theoretically from a conceptual abstraction point of view, and also as a practical programming language mechanism. Conceptual abstraction is an approach to programming which takes its outset in the importance of supporting human abstraction processes directly in t...

Citations