[ Course Documents ] : [ Object-Oriented Programming ]

Previous Contents Next Keyword Index

Origins of Inheritance

Observations of the mid-late 1980s:

• Productivity increases can come from reuse

• Unfortunately:
  • ADTs are difficult to reuse--never quite right
  • All ADTs are independent and at the same level

• Inheritance solves both--reuse ADTs after minor changes and define classes in a hierarchy