Indirect Object Representation and Access by Means of Concepts

TL;DR

This paper introduces a concept-oriented programming mechanism that uses concepts combining object and reference classes to enable flexible object representation and access, generalizing traditional object-oriented programming.

Contribution

It proposes a novel concept-based approach that allows detailed control over object representation and access procedures, extending the capabilities of conventional OOP.

Findings

Enables custom object identifiers and access methods.

Generalizes OOP by including intermediate functions.

Supports indirect object representation and access.

Abstract

The paper describes a mechanism for indirect object representation and access (ORA) in programming languages. The mechanism is based on using a new programming construct which is referred to as concept. Concept consists of one object class and one reference class both having their fields and methods. The object class is the conventional class as defined in OOP with instances passed by reference. Instances of the reference class are passed by value and are intended to represent objects. The reference classes are used to describe how objects have to be represented and accessed by providing custom format for their identifiers and custom access procedures. Such an approach to programming where concepts are used instead of classes is referred to as concept-oriented programming. It generalizes OOP and its main advantage is that it allows the programmer to describe not only the functionality of target objects but also intermediate functions which are executed behind the scenes as an object is being accessed.