24. More on Inheritance and Polymorphism

• Polymorphism: using something in multiple ways

  • E.g. overloading operator+()

  • E.g. or std::vector< int >

• Dynamic polymorphism defers the decision about how to do something until runtime.

• C++ provides a form of function overloading that yields dynamic polymorphism:

  • Works (only!) through pointers or references;

  • Uses inheritance, meaning that polymorphism is restricted to types derived from some common base.