Pragmatic Scala

Extending a Class

Extending a base class in Scala is similar to extending in Java except for two good restrictions: method overriding requires the override keyword, and only the primary constructor can pass parameters to a base constructor.

The Override annotation was introduced in Java 5 but its use is optional in Java. Scala insists that the keyword override is used when overriding a method. By requiring that keyword, Scala will help minimize errors that often arise from typos in method names. You can avoid either accidentally overriding a method unintentionally or writing a new method when your intent was to override a base method.

In Scala, auxiliary constructors have to call either the primary constructor or another auxiliary constructor. ...