4.3. Terminology and concept excursion: abstract classes, abstract coupling, Java interfaces

Classes that define common behavior for a set of subclasses usually do not represent instantiable classes but abstractions thereof – they are called abstract classes. It does not make sense to generate instances of abstract classes since some methods are abstract and have empty or no implementations. The general idea behind abstract classes is clear and straightforward.

  • Properties (that is, attributes and methods) of similar classes are defined in a common superclass.

  • Some methods of the resulting abstract class can be implemented, while only empty or no implementations can be provided for others, which are termed abstract methods. The RoundingPolicy class ...

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