A precise model for contextual roles: The programming language ObjectTeams/Java

Issue title: Roles, an interdisciplinary perspective

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Herrmann, Stephan

Affiliations: Technische Universität Berlin, Sekr. FR 5–6, Franklinstr. 28/29, 10587 Berlin, Germany. Tel.: +49 30 314 73174; Fax: +49 30 314 73488; E- mail: [email protected]

Abstract: A number of proposals exist concerning how to support the concept of roles at the level of programming languages. While some of these proposals indeed exhibit very promising properties, the concept of roles has not found its way into mainstream programming languages. We argue that this is due to the richness of the concept of roles and the fact that each existing proposal focuses on some aspects of roles while neglecting others. We present the programming language ObjectTeams/Java and using the categories of Steimann (2000) we demonstrate that this language covers more aspects of roles than previous approaches. We suggest that a thoroughly defined programming language featuring roles may contribute to a better understanding also in other fields using roles.

Keywords: Roles, collaboration, context, modeling, programming language, method dispatch

Journal: Applied Ontology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 181-207, 2007