Abstract
Programming-by-difference is a popular technique for incremental object-oriented programming, whereby a new class is built from an existing class using the inheritance mechanism. We give a formalization of this technique using model-based class specifications. This formalization is given in terms of a relation, as-a, between class specifications. We compare this relation with the established reification relation and with the is-a relation, and give some examples.
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Maung, I., Howse, J.R., Mitchell, R.J. (1994). Towards a formalization of programming-by-difference. In: Naftalin, M., Denvir, T., Bertran, M. (eds) FME '94: Industrial Benefit of Formal Methods. FME 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 873. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58555-9_93
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58555-9_93
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