Attribute: A Semantic and Seamless Construct.
Amândio Vaz Velho, Rogério Carapuça · 1994
Association has been considered an essential concept in the context of object-oriented (OO) modeling. An association represents a semantic relationship among instances of classes. The main advantages of using associations are simplicity and informality which are critical in early stages of domain analysis. However, in an OO context, the use of associations brings about some important drawbacks. Indeed, associations violate encapsulation, abstraction and extendibility. This paper shows how the concept of attribute, understood as instance variable in OO programming languages, can be semantically enriched in such a way that it becomes as expressive as the notion of association, without having its drawbacks. The paper also shows that attributes provide a good support for a seamless development process. Indeed, it can be used throughout the development life cycle, as a unifying concept able to model, either analysis/ design issues as multiplicity of relationships, or implementation issues s...