Is the following program syntactical legal C++?
(Is an object of a derived class an object of its base class?)
The DEC compiler and Guido Buzzi--Ferraris'
"Scientifc C++", p.415 say "No",
the Borland compiler "Yes".
After carefully reading ARM 4.7 times, I think Borland is right.

---------------------------
class Base
{
};


class Derived: public Base
{
};

void f(Base x)
{
}

int main()
{
   Derived b;
   f(b);
   return 0;
}
---------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Helmut Zeisel                         zeisel@indmath.uni-linz.ac.at
Institut fuer Mathematik
Universitaet Linz
A-4040 Linz                                  Tel  +43-732-2468-9225
AUSTRIA/EUROPE                               Fax     +43-732-246810

> class Derived: public Base
> {
> };
>
> void f(Base x)
> {
> }
>
> int main()
> {
>    Derived b;
>    f(b);
>    return 0;
> }
This is legal.

However, when you call your function f, the b object is copied because
f takes a copy of a b, not a reference or a pointer. When the copy
is made, the Base part of b is used for the copy, the derived part
is simple lost.

shoe