Macros to disallow class copy and assignment. Google -vs- Qt

Question

To disallow copying or assigning a class it\'s common practice to make the copy constructor and assignment operator private. Both Google and Qt have macros to make this eas

Answer 1

Others have already answered why it's legal to have different return values for operator=; IMHO jalf said it best.

However, you might wonder why Google uses a different return type, and I suspect it's this:

You don't have to repeat the type name when disabling the assignment operator like this. Usually the type name is the longest part of the declaration.

Of course, this reason is void given that a macro is used but still - old habits die hard. :-)