Derived classes and smart pointers

Question

class Object { /* */ };

and a few derived:

class Derived1 : public Object { /* */ };
class Derived2 : public Object { /* */ };

And I have a function which makes derived objects and returns pointer for Object;

Object *make()
{
   return new Derived1();
}

So, this way I have to wrap returned object by smart pointer, but what return type to use?

TYPE? make()
{
   return boost::shared_ptr<Derived1>(new Derived1());
}

Answer 1

you can use:

boost::shared_ptr<Object> make()
{
return boost::shared_ptr<Object>(new Derived1());
}