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Declarative Frameworks for Inheritance

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Logics for Databases and Information Systems

Part of the book series: The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science ((SECS,volume 436))

Abstract

Inheritance is a powerful concept that has been extensively used in the context of data modeling in databases, programming in object-oriented paradigm, and knowledge representation in artificial intelligence. Because of the close relationship between inheritance and deduction, logic is one of the obvious candidates for a declarative framework for inheritance. However, inheritance has resisted many serious attempts at a satisfactory logical rendition. In this paper, we shall survey various proposals in the literature for formalizations of inheritance and classify them based on the kind of inheritance they capture (structural or behavioral, monotonic or nonmonotonic, value inheritance or definition inheritance), and also based on their expressive power. We also classify the proposals from the perspective of the underlying logical framework they are based on (e.g., proof theory or model theory, etc). We conclude the paper with a list of what, from our perspective, are the most significant problems requiring further research in this field. Our focus in this paper will be primarily on the database and knowledge representation fronts.

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Authors
  1. Laks V.S. Lakshmanan
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  2. Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Monmouth University, USA

    Jan Chomicki

  2. University of Magdeburg, Germany

    Gunter Saake

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Lakshmanan, L.V., Thirunarayan, K. (1998). Declarative Frameworks for Inheritance. In: Chomicki, J., Saake, G. (eds) Logics for Databases and Information Systems. The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, vol 436. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5643-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5643-5_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7582-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5643-5

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