hi everyone
this is my first post since i joined the group a week ago.
I m working with java for a year now since i come from a C++
background i can't help comparing the two languages.
While studying for java i found many books stating that java does not
support multiple inheritance i don't fully agree with this notion
(please don't hate me for that).
Though it is true that one cannot extend more than one class at a time
which makes perfect sense
since all the classes in java are derived from Object class and
multiple extensions would
cause multiple objects of Object to exist in the code which could be
undesirable.However java could
have provided a concept similar to virtual base classes  in C++ but it
would have to be implicit like the extension to
the Object class and moreover multiple calls to the virtual base
class's(Object) constructor would have to be avoided.
(in C++ the compiler donot call the constructor of a virtual base class
from immediate derivations
rather it allows the class which is extending multiple derivations of
the virtual base class to call its
constructor directly, something which is not legal for ordinary base
classes) .Java could not provide a solution like this
since the only way to call the superclass constructor is by keyword
super which can call the constructor of
the immediate superclass only.So it is true that allowing multiple
extensions would have caused more problems
than it could solve.Still while creating patterns multiple inheritance
is sometimes inevitable.The solution to this
problem is interface.An interface in java  is used to create a model of
a class,it just declare the behaviour(methods) that
a class must implement.It is worth noting that code reusabilty ,a
criteria generally used to define inheritance,while implementing an
interface is nil.That is why implementing an interface is not qualified
as inheritance.However if you have ever indulged yourself in creating
design patterns you would know that inheritance is more than just code
reusability rather in my opinion code reusability is just a consequence
of implementing inheritance in programming languages. Java allows a
class to implement more than one interface in this way a class can
implement 'behaviours' of multiple classes and thus to an extent
solving the multiple inheritance problem(without providing code
reusability).
So the question is that  is it alright to say that java does not
support multiple inheritance?

nirmal.