PRPC OOP Terms: Classes

Abstract base class (ABC), is a class that cannot be instantiated; in PRPC this means that a clipboard page cannot be created using the class. An abstract class is designed only as a parent class from which child classes may be derived. Abstract classes are often used to represent abstract concepts or entities. The incomplete features of the abstract class are then shared by a group of subclasses which add different variations of the missing pieces.

Abstract classes are super classes which contain abstract methods and are defined such that concrete subclasses are to extend them by implementing the methods. The behaviors defined by such a class are "generic" and much of the class will be undefined and unimplemented. Before a class derived from an abstract class can become concrete, i.e. a class that can be instantiated, it must implement particular methods for all the abstract methods of its parent classes.

Partial classes are classes whose implementations are split over multiple Rulesets, making it easier to deal with large quantities of code and to allow selective substitution of implementation flavors using Access Group or Application Record as a means for switching-out one version for another at runtime. A primary benefit of partial classes is allowing different programmers to work on different parts of the same class at the same time. It also makes automatically generated code easier to interpret, as it can be separated from other code into distinct Rulesets.