Role-oriented programming as a form of

computer programming Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...

aims at expressing things in terms that are analogous to human

concept A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, ...

ual understanding of the

world The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

. This should make programs easier to understand and maintain. The main idea of role-oriented programming is that humans think in terms of

role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given indi ...

s. This claim is often backed up by examples of

social relations A social relation is the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences, and describes any voluntary or involuntary interpersonal relationship between two or more conspecifics within and/or between groups. The group can be a language or k ...

. For example, a student attending a class and the same student at a party are the same person, yet that person plays two different roles. In particular, the interactions of this person with the outside world depend on his current role. The roles typically share features, e.g., the intrinsic properties of being a person. This sharing of properties is often handled by the delegation mechanism. In the older literature and in the field of

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

s, it seems that there has been little consideration for the context in which roles interplay with each other. Such a context is being established in newer role- and

aspect-oriented programming In computing, aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a programming paradigm that aims to increase modularity by allowing the separation of cross-cutting concerns. It does so by adding behavior to existing code (an advice) ''without'' modifying t ...

languages such as Object Teams. Compare the use of "role" as "a set of software programs (services) that enable a server to perform specific functions for users or computers on the network" in

Windows Server Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a brand name for Server (computing), server-oriented releases of the Windows NT operating system (OS) that have been developed by Microsoft since 1993. The first release under this brand name i ...

jargon. Many researchers have argued the advantages of roles in modeling and implementation. Roles allow objects to evolve over time, they enable independent and concurrently existing views (interfaces) of the object, explicating the different contexts of the object, and separating concerns. Generally roles are a natural element of human daily concept-forming. Roles in programming languages enable objects to have changing interfaces, as we see in

real life Real life is a phrase used originally in literature to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds, and in acting to distinguish between actors and the Character (arts), characters they portray. It has become a ...

- things change over time, are used differently in different contexts, etc.

Authors of role literature

Barbara Pernici

Bruce Wallace
* Charles Bachman
Friedrich Steimann

Kasper B. Graversen

Kasper Østerbye

*

Trygve Reenskaug Trygve Mikkjel Heyerdahl Reenskaug (21 June 1930 – 14 June 2024) was a Norwegian computer scientist and professor emeritus of the University of Oslo. He formulated the model–view–controller (MVC) pattern for graphical user interface (GUI) ...

Thomas Kühn

Programming languages with explicit support for roles

* Cameleon
EpsilonJ
* JavaScript Delegation - Functions as Roles (Traits and Mixins)
Object Teams
* Perl (Moose) * Raku
powerJava

SCala ROLes Language

References

External links

Adaptive Plug-and-Play Components for Evolutionary Software Development
by Mira Mezini and Karl Lieberherr

Overview and taxonomy of Role languages

ROPE: Role Oriented Programming Environment for Multiagent Systems
{{compu-prog-stub Object-based programming languages Programming paradigms

Authors of role literature

Programming languages with explicit support for roles

See also

References

External links