Suggestion: overruling should not hide final overload functions

[Kristian]

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:20:26 +0300, Don Clugston <dac at nospam.com.au> wrote:

> Kristian wrote:
>> I suggest a small change to the current overload hiding rules: final  
>> functions should not be hidden.
>>  Logic behind this is the following:
>> You can make a function final only when you know for sure that there is  
>> no need to change its behavior later in a deriving class.
>>  If you cannot be absolutely sure, then the function must not be final.
>>   That means that changing the implementation of a final function must  
>> not -- and cannot -- change behavior of deriving classes. (Usually this  
>> also means that there will be no need to change the implementation of  
>> final functions anyway.)
>
> What about when you add new private functions to the base class? They  
> must not be virtual, because an existing derived class might already  
> have a function with the same name.

Well, a deriving class cannot call private functions of its base class  
anyway. I'm not suggesting that private flags should be overruled here;  
all the private functions are hidden in deriving classes as normal.