Contrasting Classification with Generalisation

Kuhne, T.

Classification and Generalisation are two of the most important abstraction mechanisms in modelling, and while they share a number of similarities, they are unmistakably different with repect to their properties. Recently, a number of (meta-) modelling language design approaches de-emphasised the differences between classification and generalisation in order to gain various advantages. This paper aims to demonstrate the loss in precision and the loss of sanity checks such approaches entail. After a careful comparison between classification and generalisation, I identify problems associated withthe above mentioned approaches and offer alternatives that retain a strong distinction between classification and generalisation.

Cite as: Kuhne, T. (2009). Contrasting Classification with Generalisation. In Proc. Sixth Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling (APCCM 2009), Wellington, New Zealand. CRPIT, 96. Kirchberg, M. and Link, S., Eds. ACS. 71-78.

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