Do I correctly understand what a class is?

Question

I\'ve had trouble finding a clear, concise laymans definition of a class. Usually, they give general ideas without specifically spelling it out, and I\'m wondering if I\'m u

Answer 1

You should look at some sample code, in your language of choice. Just reading about the concept of classes will not answer many questions.

For example, I could tell you that a class is a "blueprint" for an object. Using this class, you can instantiate multiple such objects, each one of them (potentially) having unique attributes.

But you didn't understand a thing, now, did you? Your example with the buttons is very limited. Classes have nothing to do with user interfaces or actions or whatever. They define a way of programming, just like functions/methods/whatever you want to call them do.

So, to give a concrete example, here's a class that defines a ball, written in Python:

class Ball:
    color = ''
    def __init__(self, color):
        self.color = color
    def bounce(self):
        print "%s ball bounces" % self.color

blueBall = Ball("blue")
redBall = Ball("red")

blueBall.bounce()
redBall.bounce()

Running this produces the expected output:

blue ball bounces
red ball bounces

However, there is much more to classes than I described here. Once you understand what a class is, you go on to learn about constructors, destructors, inheritance and a lot of other good stuff. Break a leg :)