>>>>> "MikkelFJ" == MikkelFJ  <mikkelj-anti-spam / post1.dknet.dk> writes:

    >> Class variable mimic "static" variables in Java or C++.  Class
    >> instance variables are instance variables in the class object.

    MikkelFJ> I was thinking about the C++ analogy as well. But it
    MikkelFJ> doesn't hold.  If you derive a class in C++ , any static
    MikkelFJ> members would have to be re-implemented in the derived
    MikkelFJ> class. [...]
    MikkelFJ> The derived class will not share the static member.

Actually, it does.  You can hide it by declaring another variable in a
more local scope, but the original is still there, and accessible
(with the :: operator).

    MikkelFJ> In templates you don't have to explicitly declare the
    MikkelFJ> instance member implementation, but it still creates a
    MikkelFJ> new instance.

Templates declare a family of classes that are not related through
inheritance.  The analogy doesn't carry over.

Comparison to C++ is tricky, because the semantics of the two
languages are subtly different, but I think the parallel holds.
However, if it doesn't help with *your* understanding, then forget it.

-- 
-- Jim Weirich     jweirich / one.net    http://w3.one.net/~jweirich
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, 
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)