🔗 Pre-Class Learning Material

1. CppCon 2019: Jon Kalb “Back to Basics: Object-Oriented Programming”
   • start at 4:42, watch until 28:30
   • introduces object-oriented programming, discusses some design best practices
   • rest of the talk discusses implementation best practices (reccommended!)
2. Better Code: Runtime Polymorphism - Sean Parent
   • start at 1:48, watch until 38:21
   • discusses a solution for runtime polymorphism without an inheritance-based API
   • middle part goes on a bit of a tangent about copy constructors and saving copies before presenting the complete solution, feel free to fast foward that part
   • rest of the talk adds real-world context and discusses some additional features made straightforward to implement by using the runtime-concept idiom (reccomended!)

🔗 Conversation Starters/Discussion Questions

1. What are the best examples of object-oriented or runtime-polymorphic you’ve used, maintained, and/or implemented? What made them great to work with?
2. What are the worst examples of object-oriented or runtime-polymorphic you’ve used, maintained, and/or implemented? What made them not so great to work with?
3. How do C++’s polymorphism toolkit/idioms compare to approaches to polymorphism in other languages (Rust? Python? etc.)?
4. From the Sean Parent YouTube comments… (WON YOO)

   I see global draw() function can be specifically defined with different types if I want to have a different behavior in the function other than a template function defines. Wouldn’t this pattern cause developers less convenient to find what methods can be overridden or not unlike the traditional polymorphism? For example, in traditional inheritance, if a method is virtual, I can know that can be overridden.

5. Also from the Sean Parent YouTube comments… (Rob Inson)

   How is it different from the pimpl idiom? …