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Base, Derived, Inherited

The parent-child relationship described above is often confused with the class hierarchy, which describes a completely different relationship among the classes composing the graphical interface. Some of this confusion results from sloppy terminology, in that people often use the terms parent and child when what they are really referring to is base and derived.

The term Base or base class is a relative term, indicating the named class is the foundation for a class that is derived from it. A class that is called a base class in one case could easily also be a derived class, inheriting data and methods from an even more fundamental object.

Windowing Interface Terminology

Parent, Child, Sibling

Modal Execution