Safely override C++ virtual functions

As far as I know, can't you just make it abstract?

class parent {
public:
  virtual void handle_event(int something) const = 0 {
    // boring default code
  }
};

I thought I read on www.parashift.com that you can actually implement an abstract method. Which makes sense to me personally, the only thing it does is force subclasses to implement it, no one said anything about it not being allowed to have an implementation itself.

Something like C#'s override keyword is not part of C++.

In gcc, -Woverloaded-virtual warns against hiding a base class virtual function with a function of the same name but a sufficiently different signature that it doesn't override it. It won't, though, protect you against failing to override a function due to mis-spelling the function name itself.

Since g++ 4.7 it does understand the new C++11 override keyword:

class child : public parent {
    public:
      // force handle_event to override a existing function in parent
      // error out if the function with the correct signature does not exist
      void handle_event(int something) override;
};