https://www.pistack.xyz/tags/polymorphism/ Recent content in Polymorphism on Pi Stack Hugo en-us Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.pistack.xyz/posts/2026-06-29-cpp-type-erasure-libraries-proxy-dyno-boost-function2/ Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.pistack.xyz/posts/2026-06-29-cpp-type-erasure-libraries-proxy-dyno-boost-function2/ <h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2> <p>Classical object-oriented polymorphism in C++ relies on inheritance and virtual functions. While powerful, this approach forces all participating types into a common base class hierarchy, requires heap allocation, and introduces vtable indirection. <strong>Type erasure</strong> is an alternative technique that provides runtime polymorphism without inheritance — any type that satisfies a set of requirements (duck typing) can be used interchangeably, without modifying the type itself.</p>