On 18 March 2012 04:47, F i L <witte2008@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm a bit confused. Reading through the virtual function's docs (http://dlang.org/function.html#virtual-functions) it says:

"All non-static non-private non-template member functions are virtual. This may sound inefficient, but since the D compiler knows all of the class hierarchy when generating code, all functions that are not overridden can be optimized to be non-virtual."

So if all functions are automatically optimized to non-virtual where applicable, then the "final" keyword is for conceptual access limitation only. This makes a lot of sense to me. Is there something I'm not getting that makes you want an explicit "virtual" keyword?

It's not dependable. Virtually everything meets those criteria and will be virtual, but I want to be confident that NOTHING is EVER virtual, unless I absolutely say so.

D knows nothing about the class hierarchy when generating code, I don't know how it can make that claim? Anything that's not private can be extended by another module, and only the linker could ever know out about that.

Aside from that, I want a compile error if someone tries to randomly override stuff. virtuals are a heinous crime, and should only be used explicitly. It should not be possible for someone to accidentally create a virtual.