What does 'parent' mean in styles.xml?

Question

What does parent="android:Theme.Holo" mean in res/values/styles.xml?

<style name="activated_dark_item" parent="android:Theme.Holo">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/mDrawable</item>
</style>

Answer 1

Parent attribute means that your current themes extends this Parent theme. It has all its attributes that you can override in your current style. It is a kind of inheritance for styles.

You can also check here: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/themes.html#Inheritance