This lab introduces students to the concepts of polymorphism, early binding, late binding, abstract classes, and virtual class functions. This will be done in the context of performing calculations on basic geometrical shapes. Polymorphism is a very powerful extension of inheritance, and by using pointers to the base class, it allows access to derived class objects and their functions based on the context that they are called in.
The lab will require the creation of a base geometric class, called Shape, and two sub classes, Circle and Rectangle, that are derived public from the class Shape. From there, objects of both the Circle and the Rectangle classes will be created, as will an array of pointers to the base class Shape. By using the instantiated objects and the object pointers, both static and dynamic binding will be demonstrated.