Abstract
We study here some problems yielded by multiple inheritance in object-oriented languages. We give an interpretation and a formalism of heritance mechanisms within the framework of partially ordered sets theory. An inheritance mechanism can be regarded as a traversing algorithm of the inheritance graph, and we prove that those which yields linear extension (total order) play a central role.
We discuss some operational semantic aspects of multiple inheritance, with the introduction of a concept named by multiplicity. After a presentation of some well- known inheritance algorithms we propose two new algorithms based upon depth-first search techniques and some particular classes of linear extensions, recently studied.
We end by applying these results in the case of inheritance with exceptions and by setting a few problems. All these results are implemented in the frame-based language YAFOOL.
Yet Another Frame-based Object Oriented Language. YAFOOL was developped by SEMA-METRA, with the participation of INRIA, under contract with the “Centre de Programmation de la Marine”, and is the basis of Y3®, the expert systems toolbox of SEMA-METRA.
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Ducournau, R., Habib, M. (1987). On Some Algorithms for Multiple Inheritance in Object Oriented Programming. In: Bézivin, J., Hullot, JM., Cointe, P., Lieberman, H. (eds) ECOOP’ 87 European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming. ECOOP 1987. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 276. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47891-4_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47891-4_23
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