The following does not compile with gcc 4.9.2 class O {}; class D : public virtual O { public: virtual float foo() const = 0; }; class B : public D { public: B(float, float) {} }; class R : public B { public: R() : B{1.f, 1.f} {} virtual float foo() const override { return 0.f; } }; int main() { R r; } It says it cannot instantiate an object of abstract class B. With Clang 3.6 it compiles. See discussion here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29289857/base-class-with-pure-virtual-functions If I use () instead of {} to create B, it compiles. If B has only one parameter in the constructor instead of two, it compiles.
Fixed in GCC 7+. I suspect by r7-3590 .