Should I use virtual 'Initialize()' functions to initialize an object of my class?

Question

I\'m currently having a discussion with my teacher about class design and we came to the point of Initialize() functions, which he heavily promotes. Example:

Answer 1

Ignoring the RAII implications, which others have adequately covered, a virtual initialization method greatly complicates your design. You can't have any private data, because for the ability to override the initialization routine to be at all useful, the derived object needs access to it. So now the class's invariants are required to be maintained not only by the class, but by every class that inherits from it. Avoiding that sort of burden is part of the point behind inheritance in the first place, and the reason constructors work the way they do with regard to subobject creation.