From: francis.glassborow@btinternet.com   
      
   On 24/11/2011 20:39, Ulrich Eckhardt wrote:   
   > Am 24.11.2011 01:40, schrieb Lorenzo Caminiti:   
   >> When invoking a covariant virtual function, the derived function body   
   >> is executed but the result type of the base function is returned. Is   
   >> there any way to get C++ to return the result type of the derived   
   >> function instead?   
   >   
   > Generally, there are static types and dynamic types. The static type is   
   > what the compiler verifies and where it issues errors on mismatches. The   
   > dynamic type is used at runtime, when using RTTI or doing virtual   
   > function calls.   
   >   
      
   I suspect that it might be clearer to highlight that pointers and   
   references have the static type that they are declared with but that at   
   runtime they can have a different dynamic type which depends on the   
   actual type they point to or refer to.   
      
   So   
      
   T* foo();   
      
   Has a static return type of pointer to T but at runtime it may have a   
   dynamic type of TD* where TD is a type derived from T.   
      
      
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