How to implement the factory method pattern in C++ correctly

Question

There\'s this one thing in C++ which has been making me feel uncomfortable for quite a long time, because I honestly don\'t know how to do it, even though it sounds simple:<

Answer 1

Have you thought about not using a factory at all, and instead making nice use of the type system? I can think of two different approaches which do this sort of thing:

Option 1:

struct linear {
    linear(float x, float y) : x_(x), y_(y){}
    float x_;
    float y_;
};

struct polar {
    polar(float angle, float magnitude) : angle_(angle),  magnitude_(magnitude) {}
    float angle_;
    float magnitude_;
};


struct Vec2 {
    explicit Vec2(const linear &l) { /* ... */ }
    explicit Vec2(const polar &p) { /* ... */ }
};

Which lets you write things like:

Vec2 v(linear(1.0, 2.0));

Option 2:

you can use "tags" like the STL does with iterators and such. For example:

struct linear_coord_tag linear_coord {}; // declare type and a global
struct polar_coord_tag polar_coord {};

struct Vec2 {
    Vec2(float x, float y, const linear_coord_tag &) { /* ... */ }
    Vec2(float angle, float magnitude, const polar_coord_tag &) { /* ... */ }
};

This second approach lets you write code which looks like this:

Vec2 v(1.0, 2.0, linear_coord);

which is also nice and expressive while allowing you to have unique prototypes for each constructor.