Terminology used in this documentation

Overview

While it is not essential to read this document before proceeding to other sections of the documentation, it may help to clarify some of the phrases used when talking about general and specific cases.

Worked example

Consider the following example:

This graphic illustrates the models that will be used through this documentation to elucidate how djeneralize works. From this diagram we can define the following terms:

General case or Generalization

A Writing Implement is considered to be the general case and is a generalization of all other sub-classes. Additionally, Pen is a general case in addition as further specializations are defined (Fountain Pen and Ballpoint Pen).

Specialization

Pen and Pencil are considered to be specializations of Writing implement. As can be seen from the examples, Pen and Pencil define extra fields to supplement the base fields defined on Writing Implement.

In addition, Fountain Pen and Ballpoint Pen are specializations of Pen.

Specializations can be categorized into the following sub-categories:

Final Specialization

A final specialization is the most specialized an instance can be. In the example given Fountain Pen and Ballpoint Pen are considered to be Final specializations as indeed is Pencil.

Direct specialization

Conversely a direct specialization is a specialization which is a direct specialization of a general case. Thus, Pen is a direct specialization of Writing Implement and so on.