Description
This article is from the Object-Oriented
Technology FAQ, by Bob Hathaway rjh@geodesic.com with numerous
contributions by others.
1.10) What Is Dynamic Inheritance? (Object-Oriented Technology)
Dynamic inheritance allows objects to change and evolve over time. Since base
classes provide properties and attributes for objects, changing base classes
changes the properties and attributes of a class. A previous example was a
window changing into an icon and then back again, which involves changing a
base class between a window and icon class.
More specifically, dynamic inheritance refers to the ability to add, delete,
or change parents from objects (or classes) at run-time. Actors, CLOS, and
Smalltalk provide dynamic inheritance in some form or other. Single hierarchy
systems, such as Self, provide dynamic inheritance in the form of delegation
[Ungar 87].
See also [Kim 89, chs 1, 3] for a discussion and [Coplien 92] for some
implementation discussion in C++.
Continue to:
Share and Enjoy
Bookmark this story so others can enjoy it:
Tags
programming, software, coding, Object-Oriented, language, dynamic binding, constructor, destructor, overriding, methods, inheritance, reflection, persistence, MFC, real-time, polymorphism, system, database, vendor
