Class composition is the technology used for Subject-Oriented Programming, and when used for software composition, it has numerous advantages over the object composition technology in common use today in software using Microsoft's COM and tbc Object Management Group's CORBA style of component interfaces. Many of the major defects of the usual style of object composition arises from its use of delegation in a dcfective manner (broken delegation). However, if the appropriate coding conventions are employed, it is possible to use delegation to create software that can be composed in a reliable manner. This paper explores the trade-offs between coding conventions and flexibility of composition in the use of delegation for software composition.
By: William Harrison, Harold Ossher, Peri Tarr
Published in: RC20946 in 1997
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