overrideable

Overrideable refers to a characteristic of certain elements or behaviors within a system, typically in programming or design, that allows them to be replaced or modified by a more specific instance. This concept is fundamental to polymorphism and extensibility, enabling systems to adapt to new requirements or specific contexts without altering the original code or design.

In object-oriented programming, methods in a base class are often marked as overrideable. Child classes can then provide their own implementation of these methods, which will be executed instead of the base class's version when called on an object of the child class. This is known as method overriding. It allows for specialized behavior to be defined at different levels of an inheritance hierarchy.

Beyond methods, other aspects can be overrideable. Configuration settings, for example, might be designed with default values that can be overridden by user-defined preferences or environment-specific parameters. Similarly, in user interface design, default styles or behaviors can be overridden to customize the user experience. The core idea is to establish a default or general behavior that can be selectively redefined for particular use cases, promoting flexibility and reusability. Systems that are overrideable are generally more adaptable and easier to extend.