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Revisiting Parametric Types and Virtual Classes

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Objects, Models, Components, Patterns (TOOLS 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 6141))

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Abstract

This paper presents a conceptually oriented updated view on the relationship between parametric types and virtual classes. The traditional view is that parametric types excel at structurally oriented composition and decomposition, and virtual classes excel at specifying mutually recursive families of classes whose relationships are preserved in derived families. Conversely, while class families can be specified using a large number of F-bounded type parameters, this approach is complex and fragile; and it is difficult to use traditional virtual classes to specify object composition in a structural manner, because virtual classes are closely tied to nominal typing. This paper adds new insight about the dichotomy between these two approaches; it illustrates how virtual constraints and type refinements, as recently introduced in gbeta and Scala, enable structural treatment of virtual types; finally, it shows how a novel kind of dynamic type check can detect compatibility among entire families of classes.

This work was supported by FTP 274-06-0029.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, Denmark

    Anders Bach Madsen & Erik Ernst

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  1. Anders Bach Madsen
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  2. Erik Ernst
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, 47907, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Jan Vitek

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Madsen, A.B., Ernst, E. (2010). Revisiting Parametric Types and Virtual Classes. In: Vitek, J. (eds) Objects, Models, Components, Patterns. TOOLS 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6141. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13953-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13953-6_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13952-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13953-6

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