Inherited Pimpls
sdfsd
Polymorphic Implementations
sdfs
I'd very much like to see those sections, or even only how you'd go about
re-using a pimpl_ptr from a base class, inheriting Derived::Impl from Base::Impl.?
From outside Test is an ordinary C++ class and NOT a pointer or anything
It has to be remembered that Pimpl idiom is about implementation hiding, i.e. it's about implementation and it's about hiding. It's not about making a class to behave as a pointer -- that is done by shared_ptr and done beautifully. A Pimpl-based class is by all means an ordinary class. The fact that its implementation is done in pimpl fashion is an implementation detail and is irrelevant when one inherits from that class. Therefore, as far as inheriting from a Pimpl-based class is concerned, there is not much to it. That is, class Test : public pimpl<Test>::pointer_semantics { }; like, say, shared_ptr<Test>. So, to inherit from it class Derived : public Test { }; Certainly it is unreasonable to expect all the perks that pimpl<> provided while we built Test to percolate to Derived. As far as "inheriting Derived::Impl from Base::Impl", then I've been doing pimpl<Base>::implementation { }; pimpl<Derived>::implementation : pimpl<Base>::implementation { }; on one occasion. So far, my experience is that you cannot make much use of it (like Test being polymorphic and housing Derived implementation instead)... unless you are prepared to forgo implementation hiding -- something the Pimpl is deployed for in the first place. If you do not care for implementation hiding, then I'd suggest going with shared_ptr instead. Thanks, Vladimir.