[SideQuark]

Every GUI toolkit I've used, which is many, implement subclassing for UI elements whether or not the language supports it. Remember, C++ was originally written in C, so it's clear lack of a native language feature doesn't mean things written in that language also lack that feature.

[throwaway2037]

I think your reply is more elegant than mine. Years ago, I worked on a Wall Street trading app that was written in pure C but had inheritance. It was a miracle to read the code as a 25 year old!

I wonder if there are any modern UI toolkits that do not use subclassing at all -- actual (C++/Java/C#) or synthetic (C). It would be such a PIA not to inherit from a base widget that handles most basic operations. Maaaaaybe it could be done purely with encapsulation... But, oh brother, that would a lot of boilerplate code!