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From: gwu@nujoizey.tcs.com (George Wu)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Implementing inheritance
Keywords: C++ inheritance implementation description
Message-ID: <1885@news.tcs.com>
Date: 16 Mar 91 01:16:10 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.233914.14777@evax.arl.utexas.edu>
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Reply-To: gwu@nujoizey.tcs.com (George Wu)
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Organization: Teknekron Communications Systems
Lines: 22
Cc: measures@evax.uta.edu

-
     I expect any good C++ book would contain a description of how C++
compilers implement inheritance.  Certainly, Stanley Lippman's "C++ Primer"
does so.

     In a sentence, a derived class is implemented as a structure
containing both derived and inherited data elements.  Accessing elements
defined in different parts of the inheritance tree is mostly a matter of
offsetting properly into the data structure.  There are, of course, lots of
other details, such as virtual functions and virtual inheritance.  For the
most part, add a level of dereference to implement them.

     Of course, most C++ books will not contain details specific to your
compiler.  If you really want that kind of information, I think you will
need to start reading the source code.

							George

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