Why is 'virtual' optional for overridden methods in derived classes?
- by squelart
When a method is declared as virtual in a class, its overrides in derived classes are automatically considered virtual as well, and the C++ language makes this keyword virtual optional in this case:
class Base {
virtual void f();
};
class Derived : public Base {
void f(); // 'virtual' is optional but implied.
};
My question is: What is the rationale for making virtual optional?
I know that it is not absolutely necessary for the compiler to be told that, but I would think that developers would benefit if such a constraint was enforced by the compiler.
E.g., sometimes when I read others' code I wonder if a method is virtual and I have to track down its superclasses to determine that. And some coding standards (Google) make it a 'must' to put the virtual keyword in all subclasses.
