encapsulation and inheritance in object-oriented programming languages（封装和继承在面向对象编程语言）.pdf

Encapsulation and Inheritance in Object-Oriented Programming Languages Alan Snyder Affiliation: Software Technology Laboratory Hewlett-Packard Laboratories P.O. Box 10490, Palo Alto, CA , 94303-0971 (415) 857-8764 Abstract Object-oriented programming is a practical and useful programming methodology that encourages modular design and software reuse. Most object-oriented programming languages support data Abstraction by preventing an object from being manipulated except via its defined external operations. In most languages, however, the introduction of inheritanceseverely compromises the benefits of this encapsulation. Furthermore, the use of inheritance itself is globally visible in most languages, so that changes to the inheritance hierarchy cannot be made safely. This paper examines the relationship between inheritance and encapsulation and develops requirements for full support of encapsulation with inheritance. Introduction. Object-oriented programming is a practical and useful programming methodology that encourages modular design and software reuse. One of its prime features is support for data Abstraction, the ability to define new types of objects whose behavior is defined Abstractly, without reference to implementation details such as the data structure used to represent the objects. Most object-oriented languages support data Abstraction by preventing an object from being manipulated except via its defined external operations. Encapsulation has many advantages in terms of improving the understandability of programs and facilitating program modification. Unfortunately, in most object-oriented languages, the introduction of inheritance severely compromises encapsulation. This paper examines the issue of encapsulation and its support in object-oriented languages. We begin by reviewing the concepts of encapsulation and data Abstraction, as realized by most object-oriented