From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2010-11-03T01:19:19+09:00
Subject: Re: the dark side of inherited methods

On Nov 1, 2010, at 10:29 PM, Tony Arcieri wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 5:49 PM, James Edward Gray II <james@graysoftinc.com
>> wrote:
> 
>> It is a problem with inheritance and another reason why inheritance is
>> almost never what we want.
> 
> That's a pretty extreme position to take. Inheritance is an indispensable tool.

There have been a lot of books written about the evils of inheritance.  It's mentioned on the Wikipedia page for inheritance.  I thought it was pretty much a given at this point.  

Of course, there are various forms of inheritance.  It's "implementation inheritance" that's the main problem. 

Design Patterns could also be called Ways to Avoid (Implementation) Inheritance, I think.  I find that it's even easier and more desirable to avoid inheritance with a language as dynamic as Ruby.

Of course, inheritance has it's place and uses but I feel it's definitely overused.

James Edward Gray II