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Java model is more dynamic than C++ and closer to Smalltalk or Perl.
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Subclasses don't need to to be recompiled after superclass implementation is updated.
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C++ has "fragile superclass" problem where must recompile children if change anything (method/instance variable) in a superclass or referenced class -- Java resolves references at runtime and avoids this.
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Classes have runtime representation (implemented in terms of the Class class) which allows one to look up type of a given object instance at runtime (in C cannot know if pointer is to integer or browser!)
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JDK1.1 allows introspection to dynamically find out the structure of a class at runtime
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used for automatic object serialization as when sending over network or saving on disk
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