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Inheritance in object oriented Z

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ECOOP'91 European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 1991)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 512))

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Abstract

The Z notation for the formal specification of software and systems is based on set-theory and first-order predicate calculus and is widely used and understood. Recent research has demonstrated that by extending the notation to include the idea of a class schema grouping together a state schema and the operation schemas referring to it, an object oriented specification style can be supported.

This paper introduces the concept of inheritance into object oriented Z in two ways. First of all, it defines derivation, an incremental inheritance technique for expressing new class schemas in terms of old ones. Secondly, it characterises subtyping inheritance as a technique for the hierarchical classification of objects. Thus derivation in Z is a basis for reusing existing specification modules. Subtyping inheritance is the basis for considering the substitutability of one class for another.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Telecom, St Vincent House, IP1 1UX, Ipswich, UK

    Elspeth Cusack

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  1. Elspeth Cusack
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Pierre America

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cusack, E. (1991). Inheritance in object oriented Z. In: America, P. (eds) ECOOP'91 European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming. ECOOP 1991. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 512. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0057021

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0057021

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54262-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47537-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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