Towards the systematic use of interfaces in JAVA programming

ABSTRACT

JAVA's interface construct is widely perceived as a weak surrogate for multiple inheritance. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that despite their potential for writing highly decoupled code, interfaces are used rather sparingly. We have devised a conceptual framework for the utilization of interfaces in JAVA programs, and suggest tool support lessening the coding effort induced by the introduction and maintenance of additional interfaces, as well as a metrics suit measuring how and to which extent interfaces are actually used.

REFERENCES

• 1: Desmond F. D'Souza , Alan Cameron Wills, Objects, components, and frameworks with UML: the catalysis approach, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1998
• 2: Erich Gamma , Richard Helm , Ralph Johnson , John Vlissides, Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1995
• 3: Nicola Guarino, Concepts, attributes and arbitrary relations: some linguistic and ontological criteria for structuring knowledge bases, Data & Knowledge Engineering, v.8 n.3, p.249-261, July 1992 [doi>10.1016/0169-023X(92)90025-7]
• 4: Friedrich Steimann, On the representation of roles in object-oriented and conceptual modelling, Data & Knowledge Engineering, v.35 n.1, p.83-106, Oct. 2000 [doi>10.1016/S0169-023X(00)00023-9]
• 5: Steimann, F. Role = Interface: a merger of concepts, Journal of Object-Oriented Programming 14:4 (2001), 23--32.