Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform, Fifth Edition

6.1. The Basic Mechanics of Inheritance

Recall from the previous chapter that inheritance is the aspect of OOP that facilitates code reuse. Specifically speaking, code reuse comes in two flavors: inheritance (the "is-a" relationship) and the containment/delegation model (the "has-a" relationship). Let's begin this chapter by examining the classical "is-a" inheritance model.

When you establish "is-a" relationships between classes, you are building a dependency between two or more class types. The basic idea behind classical inheritance is that new classes can be created using existing classes as a starting point. To begin with a very simple example, create a new Console Application project named BasicInheritance. Now assume you have designed ...