A Denotational Semantics af Inheritance and its Correctness

Abstract

This paper presents a denotational model of inheritance. The model is based on an inituitive motivation of the purpose of inheritance. The correctness of the model is demonstrated by proving it equivalent to an operational semantics of inheritance based upon the methodlookup algorithm of object-oriented languages. Although it was originally developed to explain inheritance in object-oriented languages, the model shows that in heritance is a general mechanism that may be applied to any form of recursive definition.