Jackson JSD Process, OOP Objects and Implementation of Inheritance in JSD

This research report shows how the same software entity can be implemented either as a Jackson System Development (JSD) process or as an Object Oriented ProgrammING (OOP) object and how a CASE tool that generates the OOP code from its equivalent Jackson process structure diagram can be designed. The tool is designed to be used when a system specification is available in JSD terms and it is desired to implement it by neans of OOP languages and techniques; a particular case in which this can be convenient is indicated. Since CASE tools that convert structure diagrams into code already exist, the shorter approach of transforming process diagrams into object diagrams is also studied and described. It is then shown hoe the reverse graphical transformation--from object diagrams to process diagrams--is equally possible, thus permitting systems specified in terms of OOP to be implemented using the JSD methods. Finally, it is seen how, by successive application of both transformations to its diagrams, the services belonging to a process can be modified (by addition, deletion or change) thus, allowing implementation of inheritance and reuse in JSD based software development.