What is the difference between public and public

[Asimov]

Hi,

Sorry if the subject is confusing, but I couldn't think of a better way to describe what I want to ask.
I notice in the Eventreciever class the class is defined like this.

Code: Select all

 
class MyEventReceiver : public IEventReceiver
{
public:
<snip>
 

but I have always started classes like this

Code: Select all

class EMissile
{
public:
    EMissile();
<snip>
 

Can you tell me what the part after the : means. I mean public IEventReceiver
Yes I know what public means, but I have never seen it defined like this.
Is it like renaming the class or some kind of psuedo name or something?

I mean you still initialise the class with this
MyEventReceiver receiver;

So I don't understand what the public IEventReceiver is?

[juanjpro]

That's inheritance: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/i ... nheritance

In Irrlicht you need inheritance so the engine can use your custom event receivers/light managers/etc, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to cast pointers to something Irrlicht recognizes.

[Asimov]

Hi juanjpro,

Thankyou I think I understand. I have programmed many things in C++ but never used inheritence. So basically it means MyEventReceiver is inheriting characteristics of the base class IEventReceiver.
I have quickly read about inheritence while I was following c++ tutorials, but never found the need for it in previous projects.

Thank you. I understand now.