The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A generalization element is a model element—an element that is an abstraction of the system being modeled--that can take part in a generalization relationship. A generalization relationship is one where the child element that has been derived from a parent element is sufficiently specialized to be capable of substituting for a more generalized parent. Generalizable elements are most often associated with the Unified Modeling Language (UML).
The generalizable element specifies an element that can take part in the generalization relationship. There are three properties, or instances, that can be assigned to a generalizable element. All three instances are Boolean; that is, they lead to a true or false outcome. A generalizable element may be related to other so-called supertypes and is itself a supertype for other underlying subtypes. Three properties, or attributes, specify these supertype and subtype relationships.
The Root attribute specifies whether there are any supertypes. The Boolean default value is false, meaning that the element can have supertypes. The Leaf attribute specifies whether there are any subtypes. The default value is false, meaning that the element can have subtypes. Finally, the Abstract attribute specifies if the element can have elements associated with it. The default value is false, meaning that the element can have associated elements.
There are three subtypes of a generalizable element: stereotype, package, and type. These subtypes are repositories for information that help relate elements to one another so that UML is meaningful.