From: ralfixx@gmx.de   
      
   * Richard Damon    
   | The order of inheritance should not matter for conforming code. A   
   | likely issue is code that assumes &Derived == &Base and does invalid   
   | casting on it.   
      
   That's indeed involved.  I have two libraries, which need to pass   
   objects of class Base.  For some reason I have to pass these via a   
   string representation.  I do:   
      
      library 1:   
         Base *ptr = &Derived;   
         ptr->foo(); // ok   
         std::ostrstream ptrstr1 << (void*) ptr;  // assume ptrstr1 is a   
   global variable   
      
      library 2:   
         std::istrstream ptrstr2(ptrstr1.str());   
         void *ptr;   
         ptrstr2 >> ptr;   
         Base *bptr = (Base*)ptr;   
         bptr->foo(); // crash if Base is not the first in inheritance list   
   of Derived   
      
   I have checked that the bptr in lib2 has the same value as ptr in   
   lib1.  I thought that casting to/from void* using the same class in   
   both directions was ok, but maybe I'm missing something fundamental   
   here...   
      
   R'   
      
      
   --   
         [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ]   
         [ comp.lang.c++.moderated.    First time posters: Do this! ]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)