Glossary: Polymorphism
If sending the same
message
to two apparently identical
objects
elicits two distinct responses, then the objects are polymorphic with respect
to the message. The situation arises when the object being addressed is
embedded
(i.e. is a base class)
of another and the message is a
virtual function
that is
overloaded
by that
class.
For example, the ROOT class
TObject
has a Paint message
(i.e member function)
which produces a graphical representation of TObject.
Classes that
inherit
from TObject will, in general, overload the Paint message with their own
distinct interpretations of the Paint concept. So the TObject class provides
an interface between application objects that can be painted and the ROOT
framework that displays them.
See OO Concepts: Interfaces & Abstract Classes
and
Virtual Functions & Polymorphism
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Nick West