Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming - Third Edition

Inheritance provides abstraction

Let's explore the longest word in object-oriented argot. Polymorphism is the ability to treat a class differently, depending on which subclass is implemented. We've already seen it in action with the pieces system we've described. If we took the design a bit further, we'd probably see that the Board object can accept a move from the player and call the move function on the piece. The board need not ever know what type of piece it is dealing with. All it has to do is call the move method, and the proper subclass will take care of moving it as a Knight or a Pawn.

Polymorphism is pretty cool, but it is a word that is rarely used in Python programming. Python goes an extra step past allowing a subclass of an object ...