Thread: Base-class pointer, accessing object from derived class

It seems somewhat strange to have a manual implementation of a linked list in a C++ program, let alone with polymorphic nodes. Does it make that much sense that your game objects cannot exist without a list?

I suppose you might rather have something like:

Code:

class Character
{
public:
    virtual ~Character() {}
    void move();
    void place();
    int getx() const;
    int gety() const;
    virtual bool is_valid() const { return true; } //immortal by default
private:
    int x, y;
};

class Mortal: class Character
{
public:
    virtual bool is_valid() const { return logic_to_determine_if_this_is_alive(); }
};

//and somewhere
std::list<boost::shared_ptr<Character> > characters; 
//or
std::list<Character*> characters;

Another thing is that if you are going to do lots of operations on mortals that other characters don't have, why not place them in a separate list?