Polymorphism
A group of related objects can have common behaviour, which still can be very distinctive. For instance, pens, pencils, and markers all can be used to draw, yet they leave very different marks on paper. Most animals make a noise, but the precise sound is unique to the animal.
Things with common behaviour can be modelled by using inheritance; all classes that share a base class will inherit that base classes' behaviour. A group of classes related by inheritance is called a class hierarchy.
If you have a number of graphical objects, they all will have at least one thing in common: They can draw themselves. That is, they will all have a draw() method. If these graphical objects all derive from some common base class Shape, which defines ...
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