[Modeling] Modeling an Agent Class- register your opinion

[Dr. Hong Zhu]

Dear Jim,

Should I read your uses of the term 'class' as 'agent class'? because, in
traditional OO, classes are not dynamic classifications. If so, I entirely
agree with you that roles are 'agent classes' from its language feature's
point of view.

Hong

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Odell" <email@jamesodell.com>
To: "ModelingTC" <modeling@fipa.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Modeling] Modeling an Agent Class- register your opinion


Then, what is the difference between class and role?  We know that a class
has (at least) structure and behaviour -- but, so does a role.  Furthermore,
instances of classes can change over time and can be members of multiple
classes at the same time (multiple and dynamic classification) -- and the
same is true of roles.  It is time that a working definition of "role"
emerges.  My current working definition is that roles are classes that are
used for interactions.

-Jim

On 6/19/03 1:56 PM, "Joaquin Peņa" indited:

> I think that the main problem is that object orientation does not
> fit well with system where behaviour is crucial.
>
> This issue can be easily solved using Role Modelling:
>
> A employee is not a class, it is a role that an object of the
> class person can perform. Thus, if a department is destroyed, all
> its employees lose this role becoming only persons (performing the
> other roles they have, i.e. father, engineer, ...).
>
> There are a lot of papers on how to implement roles in the OO
> paradigm, but we think most appropriate approach is such that use
> Aspect-Oriented Programming where functionality and behaviour are
> orthogonal in the implementation.

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