ncmagel@ndsuvax.UUCP (ken magel) (08/12/86)
If I have read the ADA Reference Manual correctly, it seems that ADA(r) does support inheritance of the form used in Smalltalk-80 and other object oriented languages. The inheritance occurs when one declares a new derived type which then inherits all the operations already existing for the type from which it was derived. One can use blocks to redefine operations if desired One restriction is that the original subtype must be defined in a package and the inherited operations are those defined in the package. This seems to correspond almost exactly to the class of Smalltalk-80 even to the extent of supporting class variables. If the packages involved were generic, one could even build a system of classes and instances, each with their own variables similar to the way object oriented programs are usually constructed.