Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: TypeErasure

Subject: Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: TypeErasure
From: Hite, Christopher (Christopher.Hite_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-06-15 10:36:46

Daniel Larimer:
> I suspect that you could achieve generic 'value semantics' for any pure virtual interface via a very simple macro + other C++11 features.   I think the cost of making a call with the following code would be the same as using pointer semantics via a virtual call.
Wow thanks for proving my point.  So value<T> requires T to be copyable.

Why do you use virtual inheritance?  It does cost something, I think a extra word in the object which gets added to this before calling stuff on the interface.

> Other than the repetitive nature of the interface spec, it is very straight forward, clear, and easy to read and understand compared to how TypeErasure currently achieves such a feat. 
Yes I agree.  You're using the laguage's built in type-erasure.

> Does this have value?? Could you integrate this technique with TypeErasure?   Is it good enough for most use cases (non operator overloading)?  It probably wouldn't be difficult to convert this to reference semantics and avoid heap alloc!
I'm not sure; your non-intrusive version is so great, because the user is forced to write the delegator.

I seriously doubt people that people will use any<> to replace complex interfaces.  (see next post)

Chris