Contrasting classification with generalisation

Abstract

Classification and Generalisation are two of the most important abstraction mechanisms in modelling, and while they share a number of similarities, they are unmistakably different with respect to their properties. Recently, a number of (meta-) modelling language design approaches de-emphasised the differences between classification and generalisation in order to gain various advantages. This paper aims to demonstrate the loss in precision and the loss of sanity checks such approaches entail. After a careful comparison between classification and generalisation, I identify problems associated with the above mentioned approaches and offer alternatives that retain a strong distinction between classification and generalisation.