Patent ID: 6898782
Filing Date: 2005-05-24
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computerized method for modeling an object-oriented system, comprising: (a) creating a reference-based association relating first and second classes by specifying a reference attribute in the first class corresponding to the second class, wherein the reference attribute in the first class includes a type and cardinality; (b) instantiating one or more objects from the first class and one or more objects from the second class; and (c) associating one or more of the objects of the first class to one or more objects of the second class using the reference attribute, wherein the type included in the reference attribute indicates that only objects instantiated from the second class can be connected to the objects instantiated from the first class and the cardinality included in the reference attribute indicates how many objects from the second class can be connected to the objects of the first class, thereby maintaining consistency between the classes and the objects in order to provide an exact execution behavior for the objects instantiated from the classes.