New Inheritance Models That Facilitate Source Code Reuse in Object-oriented Programming

Code reusability is a primary objective in the development of software systems. The object-oriented programming methodology is one of the areas that facilitate the development of software systems by allowing and promoting code reuse and modular designs. Object-oriented programming languages (OOPLs) provide different facilities to attain efficient reuse and reliable extension of existing software components. Inheritance is an important language feature that is conducive to reusability and extensibility. Various OOPLs provide different inheritance models based on different interpretations of the inheritance notion. Therefore, OOPLs have different characteristics derived from their respective inheritance models. This dissertation is concerned with solutions for three major problems that limit the utilization of inheritance for code reusability. The range of object -oriented applications and thus the usage of object-oriented programming in general is also discussed. The three major problems are: 1) the relationship between inheritance and other related issues such as encapsulation, access techniques, visibility of inheritance, and subtyping; 2) the hierarchical structure imposed by inheritance among classes; and 3) the accessibility of previous versions of the modified methods defmed in classes located at higher levels of the inheritance structure than the parent classes. 1be proposed solutions for these problems are presented as new inheritance models that facilitate code reuse and relax the restrictions imposed on inheritance models by languages. A survey and taxonomy of the conventional inheritance models, and a comparison and analysis of some of the common OOPLs are also presented in the dissertation.Computer Scienc