[Modeling] Modeling an Agent Class- register your opinion

[James Odell]

Then, what is the difference between class and role?  We know that a class
has (at least) structure and behaviour -- but, so does a role.  Furthermore,
instances of classes can change over time and can be members of multiple
classes at the same time (multiple and dynamic classification) -- and the
same is true of roles.  It is time that a working definition of "role"
emerges.  My current working definition is that roles are classes that are
used for interactions.

-Jim

On 6/19/03 1:56 PM, "Joaquin Peņa" indited:

> I think that the main problem is that object orientation does not
> fit well with system where behaviour is crucial.
> 
> This issue can be easily solved using Role Modelling:
> 
> A employee is not a class, it is a role that an object of the
> class person can perform. Thus, if a department is destroyed, all
> its employees lose this role becoming only persons (performing the
> other roles they have, i.e. father, engineer, ...).
> 
> There are a lot of papers on how to implement roles in the OO
> paradigm, but we think most appropriate approach is such that use
> Aspect-Oriented Programming where functionality and behaviour are
> orthogonal in the implementation.