Functional programming and the fragile base class problem

Authors:
Timothy A. Budd
Affiliations:
Department of Computer Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon
Venue:
ACM SIGPLAN Notices
Year:
1998

Citing 4
Cited 0

Multiparadigm Programming in Leda

Multiparadigm Programming in Leda
A Study of The Fragile Base Class Problem

ECCOP '98 Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming
Synthesizing Object-Oriented and Functional Design to Promote Re-Use

ECCOP '98 Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming
Object-Oriented Programming Versus Abstract Data Types

Proceedings of the REX School/Workshop on Foundations of Object-Oriented Languages

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

A fact of life is that software changes over time. It has been observed that while object-oriented programs and functional programs both facilitate changes of a certain variety, they also make it difficult to permit changes of another type. Object-oriented languages make it easy to add new data types, but difficult to add new functionality to an existing data type (the so-called fragile base class problem). Functional programs make it easy to add new behavior to existing data types, but make it difficult to add new types of data values that are variations on existing types. In this paper we argue that a multiparadigm language, that permits both styles of development, provides the best of both worlds.