Avoiding dynamic_cast/RTTI

Question

I was recently working on a piece of C++ code for a side project (the cpp-markdown library, for the curious), and ran into a coding question that I\'d like some opinions on.

Answer 1

The true clean way to prevent dynamic_cast is to have pointers of the right type at the right place. Abstraction should take care of the rest.

IMHO, the reason that dynamic_cast has this reputation is because its performance degrades a little bit every time you add another sub-type down in your class hierarchy. If you have 4-5 classes in the hierarchy, it's nothing to worry about.