Nominal and Structural Subtyping in Component-Based Programming

Abstract

In nominal type systems, the subtype relation is between names of types, and subtype links are explicitly declared. In structural type systems, names are irrelevant; in determining type compatibility, only the structure of types is considered, and a type name is just an abbreviation for the full type. We analyze structural and different flavors of nominal subtyping from the perspective of component-based programming, where issues such as blame assignment and modular extensibility are important.

Cite as:

Klaus Ostermann, “Nominal and Structural Subtyping in Component-Based Programming”, Journal of Object Technology, Volume 7, no. 1 (January 2008), pp. 121-145, doi:10.5381/jot.2008.7.1.a4.