Method chaining + inheritance don't play well together?

Question

Consider:

// member data omitted for brevity

// assume that \"setAngle\" needs to be implemented separately
// in Label and Image, and that Button does need         


        

Answer 1

Do setText() and setAngle() really need to return their own types in each class? If you set them all to return Widget&, then you can just use virtual functions as follows:

struct Widget {
    Widget& move(Point newPos) { pos = newPos; return *this; }
    virtual Widget& setText(string const& newText) = 0;
    virtual Widget& setAngle(double newAngle) = 0;
};

struct Label : Widget {
    virtual Widget& setText(string const& newText) { text = newText; return *this; }
    virtual Widget& setAngle(double newAngle) { angle = newAngle; return *this; }
};

struct Button : Label {
    virtual Widget& setAngle(double newAngle) {
        backgroundImage.setAngle(newAngle);
        Label::setAngle(newAngle);
        return *this;
    }
};

Note that even if the return type is Widget&, the Button- or Label-level functions will still be the ones called.