Higher Order Programming in JAVA: Introspection, Subsumption and Extraction

Higher order programming is considered a good methodology for program design and specification, furthermore it is fundamental for rapid prototyping. The paper is devoted to higher order programming in Java and, more in general, in the OO programming paradigm. We discuss introspection to write higher order programs and compare this technique with other different, interesting approaches, including function emulation and function integration. Finally, we address the problem of embedding, in the OO paradigm, the mechanisms for method passing and method extraction that are basic to the higher order programming methodology.