Protected Virtual destructors Q.

[Metro_Mystery]

I'm aware of the common problem...

class A {
public:
  A();
  ~A();

    virtual void x();
};

class B: public A {
public:
   B();
   ~B();

    virtual void x();
};

A* pA = new B;
delete pA;  //~B() never called;

Lets say B should not have been virtual & derived from; but it happened anyway.

Someone told me that declaring the destructor for A protected prevents inheritance at compile time... but wouldn't that disallow the object to be created altogether?

I'm a bit confused, could someone please shed some light on this?

Thanks