Designing an Inheritance Hierarchy

Inheritance hierarchies are easier to implement than to design, which makes it risky to start coding before clearly identifying your needs. Correcting design mistakes in a class hierarchy after implementation can require code changes that disable existing applications. This section discusses inheritance-hierarchy design considerations, giving you information that can help you avoid such mistakes.

In This Section

• Class Hierarchy Design Considerations for Extensibility
  Discusses how to design class hierarchies so they can be updated or extended by other developers.

• Considerations for Choosing Access Levels for Methods
  Describes the correct use of accessibility levels within classes.

• Base Class Design Changes After Deployment
  Explains issues that developers face when attempting to make changes to a class hierarchy.

Related Sections

• When to Use Interfaces
  Discusses when to use interfaces instead of an inheritance hierarchy.

• Interfaces in Visual Basic
  Summarizes how to design and implement interfaces.