Inheriting Interfaces

Interfaces are considered invariant. This simply means that after you publish an interface you are not supposed to change it. Suppose we had published the IDrawable interface from the last section and then decided that we wanted to change the interface. The solution to this problem is to use interface inheritance.

To indicate that a new interface is derived from an existing interface, we must use the Inherits statement (similar to deriving a new class). Continuing our example, then, we could define a new interface, IDrawable2 , and indicate that it is derived from IDrawable . The code for the new interface would begin as shown below.

 Public Interface IDrawable2   Inherits IDrawable End Interface 

So far IDrawable2 has the same member as our original IDrawable interface: one method member named Draw . We can now add to IDrawable2 new members identical to the ones we discussed in the latter part of the last section. Here is the completed IDrawable2 interface.

 Public Interface IDrawable2   Inherits IDrawable   Property Size() As Size   Property Location() As Point   Event OnDraw As PaintEventHandler End Interface 

The contract now states that classes that implement IDrawable2 must provide an implementation for the Draw method, the Size and Location properties, and the OnDraw event. Combining all the elements, Listing 2.7 demonstrates a Shape class that implements the IDrawable2 interface.

Listing 2.7 Implementing the IDrawable2 Interface
 Public Class Shape   Implements IDrawable2   Private FSize As Size   Private FLocation As Point   Public Property Size() As Size Implements IDrawable2.Size   Get     Return FSize   End Get   Set(ByVal Value As Size)     FSize = Value   End Set   End Property   Public Property Location() As Point Implements IDrawable2.Location   Get     Return FLocation   End Get   Set(ByVal Value As Point)     FLocation = Value   End Set   End Property   Public Sub Draw(ByVal G As Graphics) _     Implements IDrawable2.Draw     G.DrawEllipse(Pens.Red, GetRect())     DoDraw(G)   End Sub   Public Event OnDraw As PaintEventHandler _    Implements IDrawable2.OnDraw   Private Function GetRect() As Rectangle     Return New Rectangle(FLocation.X, FLocation.Y, _       FSize.Width, FSize.Height)   End Function   Private Sub DoDraw(ByVal G As Graphics)     RaiseEvent OnDraw(Me, New PaintEventArgs(G, GetRect()))   End Sub End Class 

You have seen all these elements before. Listing 2.7 puts them together in a complete class. You can test the code in the InterfaceDemo.sln solution.



Visual Basic. NET Power Coding
Visual Basic(R) .NET Power Coding
ISBN: 0672324075
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 215
Authors: Paul Kimmel

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