[Last Visible Dog]

Let's try programming terms. The class Vehicle has an internal property called "WhatDoICallIt," and the constructor initializes this property to "Vehicle" when an object is instantiated. There are various classes that extend the class Vehicle; however, the constructors of many of these child classes override the constructor of the parent class that sets the "WhatDoICallIt" property. Sometimes it's overridden to be "Bus," sometimes "Taxi." In all cases it's still a Vehicle since it's a child of the Vehicle class, but we don't call it that anymore since the "WhatDoICallIt" property has been changed.

What a weird example. You are one confused dude. First you freak out when I asked if you were claiming: taxi<>vehicle you said "AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!" but later in that same message you state "In all cases it's still a Vehicle since it's a child of the Vehicle class, but we don't call it that anymore" which means Vehicle<>Taxi

In your example the "WhatDoICallIt" property is purely arbitrary so the example does not work. The property could be set to "dEf$". We are debating the nature of something, not arbitrary labels

The ocean water example is the simplest - no complicated concept to comprehend. Lets try it again so you can understand your error:

I go to the beach.

I take a cup.

I fill the cup with ocean water.

100% of the contents of the cup = ocean water.

But:

100% of ocean water<> the contents of my cup.

You seem to be claiming that since the cup does not contain all of the available ocean water than I can not say the contents of my cup=ocean water.

To sum up:

the contents of my cup=ocean water

ocean water<>the contents of my cup

the contents of my cup=firmware

ocean water=software

[antiRepublicrat]

"In all cases it's still a Vehicle since it's a child of the Vehicle class, but we don't call it that anymore" which means Vehicle<>Taxi

WRONG! I obviously went over your head using basic object-oriented programming terminology. Changing a property of an object does not change the nature of the entire object, it only changes that property, in this case "WhatDoICallIt."

I honestly do not know how to explain it to you more simply than I have tried. Set theory and OO is beyond you.

One last try though. Do you get the joke, "The definition of an Infidel: A Christian in Saudi Arabia or a Muslim in Alabama."?

[Mr. K]

I agree with antiRepublicrat. You dont seem to be seeing his point.

A vehicle class has many properties. A derived class is still a vehicle, but may override some of the properties. It is still a vehicle, but it is CALLED a taxi, or bus, or car (instead of the default "vehicle")

The vehicle CLASS has a property containing TEXT "vehicle" by default, but it could just as easily contain "xxx" as default, or better "name me" as default.