I half agree; it's easy to be cynical. Virtual functions can be a terrible idea... if they are in a hot path. Is EchoHandler::read such a path? Maybe, you real

I half agree; it's easy to be cynical. Virtual functions can be a terrible idea... if they are in a hot path. Is EchoHandler::read such a path? Maybe, you really can't say without profiling. If anything using std::string is the red flag for me.