An interface is exactly just that (plus constant declerations). With abstract classes, you can have static methods and everything else that comes with a proper class. The drawback is, of course, that you can only inherit from at most one abstract class.
I cannot think of even a single example, off the top of my head, where an abstract class in Android could have also been defined as an interface without losing any functionality. On Jul 25, 12:05 pm, Indicator Veritatis <[email protected]> wrote: > Those "many cases for this there is no particularly good reason one > was picked over the other" are most likely, I hope, the cases where I > gave up on trying to figure out why the Android team chose to make the > one 'abstract class' and the other 'public interface';) > > On Jul 21, 10:28 pm, Dianne Hackborn <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 8:16 PM, Indicator Veritatis > > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > They do not pause to explain, for example ... why some classes are defined > > > a public abstract classes, while very similar other classes are > > > defined as interfaces. > > > Well hopefully you generally don't care. And to be honest, in many cases > > for this there is no particularly good reason one was picked over the other. > > ;) > > > -- > > Dianne Hackborn > > Android framework engineer > > [email protected] > > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to > > provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails. All such > > questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and > > answer them.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
