Bringing it all together...

This document was written by CS 290W TA Joshua Kay and was last modified

We need to discuss the difference between Classes and Instances of those classes

If we have a Frog class, it is merely a class which defines a generic frog

However, it does not define any specific frog

In other words, the Frog class can be thought of as a generic template to create new frogs

Frog kermit=new Frog();

kermit is now an instance of class Frog. We can tell kermit to jump, to ribbit, to eat a fly

We can say kermit.jump() - we CANNOT say Frog.jump()

Dog spot=new Dog();

We can say spot.bark() - but we CANNOT say Dog.bark()

You can tell your dog to speak, but you can't make the definition of a dog speak

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We have to learn to think in terms of Objects, and how they relate