When mentioning polymorphism, many programmers will think of dynamic polymorphism, where the information needed to perform a function call is gathered at runtime. In contrast to this, static polymorphism is about determining the calls at compile time. An advantage of the former is that you can modify the list of types at runtime, allowing extending your class hierarchies through plugins and libraries. The big advantage of the second is that it can get better performance if you know the types upfront. Sure, in the first case you can sometimes expect your compiler to devirtualize your calls, but you cannot always count on it doing so. However, in the second case, you can get longer compilation times.
Looks like you cannot win in all cases. Still, choosing the right type of polymorphism for your types can go a long way. If performance is at stake, we strongly suggest you consider static polymorphism. CRTP is an idiom that can be used...
