Practice with abstract classes | Level 3

http://www.dblab.ntua.gr/~gtsat/collection/Java%20books/Bruce.Eckel.Thinking.In.Java.4th.Edition.Dec.2007.eBook-BBL.pdf This book was written in 2006, so it only covers up to java 1.5/6. Bruce Eckel does a good job of ensuring every reader is able to understand the concepts. I have about 10 different core Java books and this one is my go to for when I am confused about a topic. The link above is to a pdf of the book. I would recommend purchasing the book so you can sit down and read when your not at your computer and using the pdf as a reference.(After all learning to programming is like learning a foreign language, immerse yourself in the language every chance you get!)

Thank you Joshua, exactly what I needed.

I'm in the same situation, but here's my thinking: maybe the information is too new, and we know it, it just hasn't settled in yet. So maybe that is why we can work through the exercises but do no know how it works?

The BigFox inherits Fox and Fox implements Animal getColor() (note, it reaches to the interface, but does not implement its method!). So, Fox doesn't implement Animal's getColor() directly, but in this case, BigFox does it. So the Fox remains abstract while having Animal's getColor() unimplemented and leaving for down the road to a next class to implement it :) The getColor() method is implemented by BigFox.

I'm assuming that abstract classes don't need to implement methods of the interfaces that they inherit.

static keyword is used to declare a variable, method or class "shared" it means all the objects have only one copy of that thing. static class is used inside the other class to separate it from that class so that the it does not belong to the objects of the class containing the static class.