[Tutor] Super class

[Alan Gauld]

"Dave Angel" <davea at ieee.org> wrote

> It's an object oriented thing, and as such, "advanced programming." 
> (IMHO)

Yep, I'd agree. Although OOP is becoming more mainstream every year.
In the way that using functions and proceduires used to e considered
advanced concepts(compared to subroutines and GOTO) but are
now considred mainstream.

> class Myclass(object):
>      description...
>
> And this class derives from object, which is more-or-less the simplest 
> class of all.  So object is the base class, and Myclass is the subclass. 
> ...

> Superclass is a synonym for base class.  And super() is a mechanism you 
> can use to specify one of your base classes without knowing all the 
> classes that might be up there.
>
> Incidentally, child class is a synonym for sub class as well.

And the confusion stems from the two OOP camps that flourished in the 
1980/90s.
Lisp and Smalltalk preferred super/child and C++/Java preferred base/sub

Historic accidents bedevil programming jargon making it a minefield of
confusion for beginners!

-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/