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RE: viewpoints and multiple inheritance.





Dear Matthew,

At 10:05 AM +0200 6/21/00, West, Matthew MR SSI-GPEA-UK wrote:
>Dear Chris,
>
>Multiple inheritance (worked out bottom up rather than top down) is a matter
>of the discovery of common factors with a certain structure.

No, it isn't.  This is precisely the kind of confusion that (perhaps) 
derives from the Object-Oriented "code-sharing" paradigm (to 
paraphrase John Thompson in this list) that I would like to avoid.

Perhaps these factors can lead one to consider arranging properties 
in a taxonomy, but once you do it you have a universal assertion, not 
a sharing of factors. Regardless of whatever they have in common, if 
you say cat is-a pet then it means ALL cats are pets.  THAT is what 
it means, and nothing else.  Single or multiple, it doesn't matter.

-Chris

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Christopher A. Welty        http://www.cs.vassar.edu/faculty/welty/
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