Den 14-02-2012 20:53, Stewart, Robert skrev:
Specifically, polymorphic data types are often passed around by pointer to base class instead of reference to base class by most C++ programmers.
Really? I'm certainly not "most C++ programmers" then. If something might not exist, I use optional or a pointer, depending. If it is required to exist, then I use a reference. I write functions taking references, not pointers, when I don't want to deal with the possibility of a null pointer. The caller must handle that for me.
Yes, really. Look at Boost.PtrContainers, for instance. They also allow you to create containers that are validated to contain no nulls. But we are very often required to use the pointers. How the object is passed around out-side the container is another matter. -Thorsten