I think that there are use cases for virtual constructors, but that due to syntactic issues C++ does not have them.
One use case is to clone an object of a derived type, where only the base type is known. Dewhurst in C++ Common Knowledge gives the example of a customer wanting to order the same meal as another customer. You know (at compile time) that the fellow wants a meal, but you do not know what meal he wants since neither customer has actually ordered their meals.
The problem then, is that a copy constructor is invoked with syntax like this:
Code:
Meal my_meal(other_meal);
This would result in type slicing. The workaround is to provide a clone() virtual function that returns an object of the specific derived type (i.e., using covariant return types), so we can write:
Code:
Meal* my_meal = other_meal.clone(); // or wrap the returned pointer in a smart pointer
C++ FAQ Lite has an article on this solution: What is a "virtual constructor"?
Originally Posted by Adak
