Modularity meets inheritance

Abstract

Several roles of classes in existing languages are unbundled by providing a suite of operators independently controlling such effects as combination, modification, encapsulation, name resolution, and sharing, all on the single notion of a module. It is pointed out that all module operators are forms of inheritance: thus, inheritance not only is not in conflict with modularity in the present system, but is its foundation. This allows a previously unobtainable spectrum of features to be combined in a cohesive manner, including multiple inheritance, mixings, encapsulation, and strong typing. The proposed approach is demonstrated in a language called Jigsaw. The language is modular in two senses: it manipulates modules and it is highly modular in its own conception, permitting various module combinators to be included, omitted, or newly constructed in various realizations.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>