ecragg@GMUVAX.GMU.EDU ("EDWARD CRAGG") (10/23/89)
Date: 19 Oct 89 From: crash!pro-novapple!herwin (Harry Erwin) Subject: Multiple Inheritance Apparently there is some question about a requirement for multiple inheritance in Ada 9X. Multiple inheritance is necessary to support generalized semantic data networks. Although most problem domains are simple enough that simple inheritance can be used with an appropriate ordering of the object classes, the representation of domain knowledge in some scientific fields is sufficiently convoluted that there is no natural ordering, and multiple inheritance is a much more effective solution to the problem of defining domain objects. For similar reasons, many intelligence processing applications are most effectively solved by semantic data networks and (hence) multiple inheritance. Omitting multiple inheritance from Ada 9X will cripple it for those applications. Harry Erwin TELEMAIL: Herwin/TRW UUCP: crash!pro-novapple!herwin ARPA: crash!pro-novapple!herwin@nosc.mil INTER: herwin@pro-novapple.cts.com