Tools for Exploration of Dynamic Models in Object-oriented Design

In the scope of object-oriented design, a dynamic model is concerned with the mutual interaction among objects. In addition, a dynamic model may deal with creation and deletion of objects. As such, dynamic models are in contrast to static models, which typically are concerned with classes and class relations. It is a central hypothesis of this work that designing with concrete objects is easier and more direct than designing with classes, especially in complicated design situations. In addition it has been observed that dynamic models are much more di cult to capture on a sheet of paper than a static model, because of a mismatch between the medium (paper) and the nature of the model (something being \alive"). In the paper we argue that programs, formulated in an ordinary object-oriented programming language, cannot be used for design purposes, because programming languages are concerned with too many details, which are irrelevant for design purposes. Instead we propose a new formalism, called Dynamo, for description of dynamic models together with a set of tools that constitute a dynamic medium, via which the models can be explored.