Discovering Classes and Objects - Beginning Java 7 - page 116

Listing 2-24. A fictional demonstration of multiple implementation inheritance
class Horse
{
void describe()
{
// Code that outputs a description of a horse's ap-
pearance and behaviors.
}
}
class Bird
{
void describe()
{
// Code that outputs a description of a bird's ap-
pearance and behaviors.
}
}
class FlyingHorse extends Horse, Bird
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
FlyingHorse pegasus = new FlyingHorse();
pegasus.describe();
}
}
This class structure reveals an ambiguity resulting from each of Horse and Bird
declaring a describe() method. Which of these methods does FlyingHorse in-
herit? A related ambiguity arises from same-named fields, possibly of different types.
Which field is inherited?
The Ultimate Superclass
AclassthatdoesnotexplicitlyextendanotherclassimplicitlyextendsJava's Object
class(locatedinthe java.lang package—Iwilldiscusspackagesinthenextchapter).
Forexample, Listing2-1 's Image classextends Object ,whereas Listing2-21 ' s Car
and Truck classes extend Vehicle , which extends Object .