Object Oriented Programming with C++, Second Edition

9.1 INTRODUCTION

Some experts consider that OOP is nothing but code reuse. One of the most important tool in code reuse is inheritance. If we have developed a class and we need a new class, which is almost similar to it but slightly better than that one (more instance variables and methods), principle of inheritance becomes handy. In non-OOP programming, we have to define completely the new structures and functions. In OOP, a new class can be derived from a old class. In that case, it automatically acquires all the variables and methods from the old class. This saves a lot of development time. The new class is considered as derived class, whereas the old class is termed as base class.

We are familiar to windows. First, window is a simple text ...