UDC 004.434

Koen Vanderkimpen, Marko van Dooren, and Eric Steegmans

Department of Computer Science,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,
Celestijnenlaan 300A
3000 Leuven, Belgium
{koen.vanderkimpen, marko.vandooren, eric.steegmans}@cs.kuleuven.be

Abstract. Many object-oriented programming languages use fields to represent object state. This representation however, cannot be altered sufficiently when subclassing. Moreover, in languages such as Java and C#, proper encapsulation of fields necessitates a lot of boilerplate code. In this paper, we introduce our concept of properties, which are far more flexible for use with inheritance and greatly reduce boilerplate code compared to C# properties. Using our properties makes it easier for programmers to model programs in a more consistent manner. Furthermore, our Properties allow redefining an object's attributes in ways that equal the possibilities for redefinition of virtual methods in many programming languages, which makes them better suited to deal with unanticipated reuse. Specifically, using our construct, it becomes possible to join several superclass attributes into only one at the subclass level, conjointly decreasing memory consumption.