Declare class pointer with or without new

[Joeman]

That might be a nice sentiment if it had much basis in reality. Alas, it really doesn't - there have been (and still are) innumerable programs written by experts and professionals that leak memory.

Even C++ for all of its complexities and flaws gives you tools to make memory management less of a problem. Not taking advantage of them when you have the opportunity is simply foolish.

It has alot to do with reality. First off I know professionals make mistakes, but really not on such a basic level. I never said using stl containers is bad and should be avoided. I bet you won't find a professional that wouldn't know how to probably handle memory.

Polymorphism works just fine without new. About the only time that new is actually required for it is when you need a container of polymorphic objects.

and I think polymorphic objects in a container is important and there more reasons new is required than for placing derived objects into a container. Consider a factory design pattern. Alot depends on what is occuring at runtime and loads the specific derived type based on requirements. It would be hard to replace new with a local scoped object. It is possible, but wouldn't look as clean.