From: "Hickman, Greg"

...

From: Peter Dimov [mailto:pdimov@mmltd.net] If 'f' is virtual, have the object store a weak_ptr to itself:

class X { private:

weak_ptr<X> weak_this;

X(); X(X const &); X& operator=(X const &);

public:

static shared_ptr<X> create() { shared_ptr<X> px(new X); px->weak_this = px; return px; }

I must be missing something here, because it appears as though you can't derive a Y from X and still initialize X::weak_this.

You could simply make X::weak_this and X::X() protected... although if you follow the design rule that says that non-leaf classes should be abstract (and if possible contain no data) this shouldn't be necessary, as X as pictured above would be a leaf.