IAOA Ontology Term - CLASS    (3K7B)

Definition(s)    (3K7C)

  1. <BioMedical ontology research and development> A CLASS is a collection of all and only the particulars to which a given general term applies. Where the general term in question refers to a universal, then the corresponding class, called the EXTENSION of the universal (at a given time), comprehends all and only those particulars which as a matter of fact instantiate the corresponding universal (at that time). The totality of classes is wider than the totality of extensions of universals since it includes also DEFINED CLASSES, designated by terms like ‘employee of Swedish bank’, ‘daughter of Finnish spy’ (BarrySmith, WaclawKusnierczyk, DanielSchober, WernerCeusters).    (3K7E)
  1. <Object Oriented Programming> a class is a construct that is used to create instances of itself – referred to as class instances, class objects, instance objects or simply objects (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_%28computer_programming%29)    (3K7F)

Commentary    (3K7H)

  1. "class" has a clear meaning in the context of XML; but its meaning is clearly defined in the context of the BFO and OBO Foundry. I don't think we'd want to tell people to only use "class" in one of those two ways, but we could explain the difference across contexts." (Adam)    (3K7I)