An Inheritance Model for Supporting Flexible Displays of Data Structures


Prasun Dewan
Software Practice and Experience
July 1991, Volume 21, Number 7, pages 719-738.

Abstract: We have designed an inheritance model that reduces the effort required to define presentations of data structures of programs written in conventional languages. It assumes that the presentation of a data structure is determined by one or more attributes of the data structure; classifies data structures into several groups based on their types, contexts, siblings, ancestors, and other properties; and allows an attribute to be defined once for all members of a group. These groups are arranged in multiple intersecting hierarchies, and a subgroup is allowed to inherit attributes from its supergroup(s). This paper motivates, describes, and illustrates our method of grouping values and arranging the value groups in inheritance hierarchies.



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