We show how finite-state machines can standardize the protocol used by a component object to notify other interested objects of its state changes, resulting in a more effective use of static types to constrain both parties, and a more efficient dissemination of information. The enhanced component specification is called a logical observable entity, or LOE. We address two key issues in effectively applying such a strategy: how to extend subtyping to consider the state machines, and how to ensure some kind of compliance between the state-machine specification and its implementation. This leads to an unusual subtyping predicate for LOEs on the one hand, and a prototype code generation strategy on the other. 1 Introduction When a component object is developed in isolation from its clients, it cannot send messages directly to objects in the client systems since it does not know their actual class names. Instead, a level of indirection must be employed, usually by having the component spec...

Existing formalisms of inheritance are not sufficient to model the complexities of the kind of multiple inheritance exemplified in C++. Any satisfactory formalism must model the complicating effects of virtual and nonvirtual base classes as well as virtual and non-virtual methods. By abstracting the implementational notion of a subobject and formalizing subobject selection, we develop a formalism to model this combination of features. Not intended as a formal semantics of C++, the resulting model should nevertheless provide an essential level of understanding for language theorists and implementors in their dealings with C++ and related languages. 1 Introduction The style of multiple inheritance first proposed for Simula by Krogdahl[21] and later developed into the C++ multiple inheritance system by Stroustrup[35, 15] exemplifies a particular kind of inheritance in which the underlying imperative is to maintain the integrity of subobjects. Subobjects are historically an implementation...