A structured bipartite inheritance network representation for object-oriented software design

Abstract

A representation for any object-oriented software design is presented. The representation is based on a structured bipartite inheritance network, which is a network with two kinds of basic nodes-data entity nodes and action nodes-and an encapsulation mechanism-substructure. Data entity nodes and action nodes are independent of each other and structured into the inheritance hierarchy. The advantage of this representation is that all object-oriented software design can be represented in a uniform way, thereby making the software system more understandable and more maintainable.<>