Virtual functions and inheritance

[David Monagle via Digitalmars-d-learn]

Hi guys,

I'm a former C++ developer and really enjoying working with D 
now. I have a question that I hope some of you may be able to 
answer.

class Parent {
  @property string typeName() {
    return typeof(this).stringof;
  }
}

class Child : Parent {
}

void main() {
  auto p = new Parent;
  auto c = new Child;
  assert(p.typeName == "Parent");
  assert(p.typeName == "Child");
}


I'm looking for an explanation as to why this doesn't work, then 
a suggestion for how I may achieve child classes being able to 
generate a string description of their own type, without 
redefining the typeName property on each child. (I'm currently 
solving this with a mixin, but I was hoping for a better solution.

I'm assuming it doesn't work because either typeof(this) or 
.stringof is evaluated at compile time?