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Inheritance graph hierarchy construction using rectangular decomposition of a binary relation and designer feedback

  • Session 7a: Theoretical Issues in Modeling
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Conceptual Modeling — ER '97 (ER 1997)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1331))

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Abstract

Inheritance is the main theme of schema design for the object-oriented software and object oriented database [10]. It supports class hierarchy design and capture the is-a relationship between a class and its superclass. Obviously, the designer needs tools to assist him to define his conceptual schema. However, very few approaches attempt to provide methods and tools for designing inheritance graph in object databases [29], and object software [1]. In this paper, we propose a semi-automatic method for generating inheritance graph hierarchy. This method is semi-automatic because it takes into account the feedback of the designer based on his expertise. It has a sound mathematical foundation and allows us to obtain a number of classes less than methods which uses Galois Lattice as a support to generate class hierarchy. Steps of our method are : (i) From a binary relation which represents the links between classes and their properties and methods, some heuristics generate a set of Optimal Rectangles (OR: group of classes which share the same properties and methods). (ii) The set of OR is organised by a partial order relation into a Brut Inheritance Graph (BIG). (iii) BIG is simplified and shown to the designer. (iv) The designer can modify, add or remove classes, attributes or methods in the binary relation and activates steps (ii) and (iii) until he obtains a proper class hierarchy or an Optimal Inheritance Graph.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DEEE/CT, Grupo de Ciência da Computação, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Campus do Bacanga, 65080-040, São Luís - MA

    Mohamed M. Gammoud, Jerônimo D. Mendes & Wilson S. Pinto

  2. Departement of Computer Science, Campus Universitaire, Tunis University, Faculty of Sciences, Le Belvédère, 1060, Tunis, Tunisia

    Mohamed M. Gammoud

Authors
  1. Mohamed M. Gammoud
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  2. Jerônimo D. Mendes
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  3. Wilson S. Pinto
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David W. Embley Robert C. Goldstein

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Gammoud, M.M., Mendes, J.D., Pinto, W.S. (1997). Inheritance graph hierarchy construction using rectangular decomposition of a binary relation and designer feedback. In: Embley, D.W., Goldstein, R.C. (eds) Conceptual Modeling — ER '97. ER 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1331. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63699-4_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63699-4_23

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63699-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69630-8

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