If you come from an Object Oriented background, in particular one that supports multiple inheritance, you might find an apparent similarity between multiple inheritance in OO and having a class be subsumed by two others. However, if you try this out, you’ll realize you’re not getting what you’re expecting. This is because the semantics are different

In OO there are really two things going on at the same time: subtyping and inheritance. The inheritance piece is giving you properties from both of your parents. If one parent had the “foo()” method and the other parent had the “bar()” method, the child now has both. The child has all of the attributes, and all of the behaviors of both parents. The child is essentially the union of the behaviors of the two parents. Semantics is not dealing with behavior, it’s dealing with typing, membership and classification.

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Preconceived Idea # 2: Multiple Inheritance

If you come from an Object Oriented background, in particular one that supports multiple inheritance, you might find an apparent similarity between multiple inheritance in OO and having a class be subsumed by two others. However, if you try this out, you’ll realize you’re not getting what you’re expecting. This is because the semantics are different.

Read more