1998/11/01 by Gregor Snelting, Frank Tip · 1 citation
Computer Science · Engineering · #Software Engineering Research #Web Applications and Data Management #Rough Sets and Fuzzy Logic #Class hierarchy #Hierarchy #Class (philosophy) #Computer science #Business process reengineering #Imperfect #Formal concept analysis #Theoretical computer science #Restructuring #Set (abstract data type) #Lattice (music) #Programming language #Artificial intelligence #Object-oriented programming #Engineering #Algorithm #Operations management
paper · doi:10.1145/291252.288273
openalex publication_date 1998/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
The design of a class hierarchy may be imperfect. For example, a class C may contain a member m not accessed in any C -instance, an indication that m could be eliminated, or moved into a derived class. Furthermore, different subsets of C 's members may be accessed from different C -instances, indicating that it might be appropriate to split C into multiple classes. We present a framework for detecting and remediating such design problems, which is based on concept analysis. Our method analyzes a class hierarchy along with a set of applications that use it, and constructs a lattice that provides valuable insights into the usage of the class hierarchy in a specific context. We show how a restructured class hierarchy can be generated from the lattice, and how the lattice can serve as a formal basis for interactive tools for redesigning and restructuring class hierarchies.