Effective C++ 27. Minimize casting

dynamic_cast is primarily used to perform “safe downcasting,”i.e., to determine whether an object is of a particular type in an inheritance hierarchy.

class Window {.. };
class SpecialWindow: public Window {
public:
    void blink();
};
typedef 
    std::vector<std::tr1::shared_ptr<Window> > VPW;
VPW winPtrs;
...
for (VPW::iterator iter = winPtrs.begin(); iter != winPtrs.end(); ++iter) {
    if (SpecialWindow *psw = dynamic_cast<*SpecialWindow>(*iter)) {
        psw->blink;
    }
}

try to do this instead
I.

typedef std::vector<std::tr1::shared_ptr<SpecialWindow> > VSPW;
VSPW winPtrs;
...
for (VSPW::iterator iter = winPtrs.begin(); iter != winPtr.end(); ++iter) {
    (*iter)->blink();
}

II.
provide virtual functions

class Window {
public:
    virtual blink() { }
    ...
};

class SpecialWindow: public Window {
public:
    virtual blink() { ... }
};

typedef std::vector<std::tr1<shared_ptr<Window> > VPW;
VPW winPtrs;
for (VPW::iterator iter = winPtrs.begin(); iter != winPtrs.end(); ++iter) {
    (*iter)->blink();
}