为什么析构函数常声明为虚函数

       昨天看了火狐的源码，看到里面很多，应该说几乎所有的析构函数都申明为虚函数，一时想不起来为啥，就上网查了一下，才知道这样做的作用是：

       当你动态申请一个对象时，并且把这个对象的指针赋值给基类，这时当你用这个基类指针释放内存时，就有用了，因为这样可以用多态性原理调用对象实际的析构函数来析构内存。举例代码如下

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class CPen
{
public:
	CPen(int weight) : m_weight(weight)
	{
		cout << "construct Cpen object.\n";
	}
	virtual ~CPen()
	{
		cout << "destruct CPen object\n";
	}
	//~CPen()
	//{
	//	cout << "destruct CPen object\n";
	//}
	void PrintWeight() const
	{
		cout << "weight = " << m_weight;
	}
private:
	int m_weight;
};

class CShape
{
public:
	int m_length;	
	int m_thickness;
	int m_colour;
};

class CPencil : public CPen
{
public:
	CPencil(int weight, int length, int thickness, int colour) : CPen(weight)
	{
		m_shapePtr = new CShape;
		m_shapePtr->m_length = length;
		m_shapePtr->m_thickness = thickness;
		m_shapePtr->m_colour = colour;
		//m_weight = weight; error
		cout << "construct CPencil object.\n";
	}
	~CPencil()
	{
		cout << "destruct CPencil\n";
		delete m_shapePtr;
	}
	void ShowInfo() const
	{
		cout << "I am a pencil: ";
		PrintWeight();
		cout << " length = " << m_shapePtr->m_length << " thickness = " << m_shapePtr->m_thickness
			<< " colour = " << m_shapePtr->m_colour << endl;
	}
private:
	CShape *m_shapePtr;
};

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
	CPen *penPtr = new CPencil(10, 11, 12, 13);

	((CPencil *)penPtr)->ShowInfo();

	delete penPtr;
	penPtr = NULL;
	getchar();
	return 0;
}

代码中注释了的析构函数是没有声明为虚函数的情况，大家如果也想测试的话，只要把注释去掉，在把虚析构函数注释起来，就可以对比出他们两的差别了。