The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary

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Object oriented programming and design patterns form a very good framework for implementing a computational algebra system. Object oriented programming offers different kinds of mechanisms for obtaining high level of genericity; and these are also mechanisms for reusing.The need to represent and work with abstract algebraic structures implies the need for genericity. This could be achieved by using parametric polymorphism or type polymorphism. We analyze in this article the suitability of using parametric polymorphism, in an object-oriented programming context, for implementation of algebraic structures, showing some advantages but also some problems. The implementation issues are discussed for the particular case of the square matrices of a certain order.The analysis emphasizes also general advantages of using parametric types - such as type safety, but also some constrains forced by them.

Key words and phrases. genericity, OOP, templates, patterns, algebraic structures, abstractness.