Defininng and using an object as a Swarm and a SwarmObject at the same time.

[William S. Shu]

Please help me find practical ways of expressing the following conceptual
problem in Swarm (and adhere to Objective C requirements as well)
exemplified by:

@interface MalariaPop:Population:SwarmObject
{
 ...
}
 ...
@end;

@interface MalariaPop:Population:Swarm
{
 ...
}
 ...
@end;

MalariaPop is a population of malaria germs, and hence it is a kind of
population.  Inside a person, I am interested in the malaria population as
an object, and so I define it as a swarmObject.  But MalariaPop contains
malaria germs, whose interactions I may also want to consider.  So I define
MalariaPop as a Swarm!

Using different names (e.g. MalariaPopSwarmObject and MalariaPopSwarm) seems
to make two classes of the same thing, and I would probably have to allow
for this distinction in the code.

Now the Questions (probably trivial):
a)    How can one define a given object simultaneously as a Swarm and a
SwarmObject.

b)    Having successfully defined it, any hints on how to switch between its
two "states", or those in between?  i.e., to be treated completely as an
object, or completely as a swarm, or simultaneously (?) as a bit of both!

c)    How do I avoid defining intermediate classes for Population:Swarm,
Population:SwarmObject.  They are not a result of my problem conception and
seem to distract.  At any rate, if they must exist, how do I hide them and
ensure they are "transparent"?

Thanks,

William




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