Modeling Inheritance as Coercion in the Kenzo System

Abstract: In this paper the analysis of the data structures used in a symbolic com- putation system, called Kenzo, is undertaken. We deal with the specification of the inheritance relationship since Kenzo is an object-oriented system, written in CLOS, the Common Lisp Object System. We show how the order-sorted algebraic specifica- tion formalism can be adapted, through the “inheritance as coercion” metaphor, in order to model the simple inheritance between structures in Kenzo.