According the ARM, an overriding function in a derived class had to have the same return type as the version in the base class.

	class Base
	{
	public:
		virtual Base*	clone();
	};
	
	class Derived : public Base
	{
	public:
		Base*		clone();
			// not ideal return type
	};

---

This restriction has now been relaxed and the following is now legal:

	class Derived : public Base
	{
	public:
		Derived*	clone();
	};

---

The return type of an overriding function can be a pointer or reference to a class derived from the return type of the base class - a so-called covariant return type.

	class A
	{
	public:
		virtual A*	fetch();
	};
	
	class B : public A
	{
	public:
		B*		fetch();
	};