Re: [boost] [util] Any interest in address_of_first_nonarray_elem ?

Subject: Re: [boost] [util] Any interest in address_of_first_nonarray_elem ?
From: Mostafa (mostafa_working_away_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-12-02 17:50:45

On Mon, 02 Dec 2013 02:34:15 -0800, Joaquin M Lopez Munoz <joaquin_at_[hidden]>  
wrote:

> Mostafa <mostafa_working_away <at> yahoo.com> writes:
>
>>
>> On Sun, 01 Dec 2013 23:56:41 -0800, Joaquin M Lopez Munoz <joaquin <at>
> tid.es>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Why the "non"? Shouldn't the name be "address_of_first_array_elem"?
>> > How is this different from std::begin(lhs)?
>>
>> No. The motivating use case for this were built-in multidimensional
>> arrays. I wanted a generic way to compare and copy them without  
>> resorting
>> to nested loops.
>>
>> For example:
>>
>>    typedef int ArrType[2][3];
>>
>>    ArrType a1 = { {0, 1, 2}, {3, 4, 5} };
>>    ArrType a2 = { {0, 1, 2}, {3, 4, 5} };
>>
>>    // Prints 0.
>>    std::cout << "Std Equal: " << std::equal(a1, a1 + 2, a2) << "\n";
>>    // Prints 1. Obviously address_of_first_nonarray_elem would be used
>> instead of subscripting.
>>    std::cout
>>      << "Flattened Std Equal: " << std::equal(a1[0], a1[0] + 6, a2[0])
>
> Ok, I got it now. The name is not very illuminating, maybe
> flat_begin/flat_end or a flat_view with begin/end/size would do better.

Thanks. I think you're on the right track. Why not just a flat_view along  
the following lines of:

template <typename T, std::size_t>
typename flat_view_result<T[N]>::type flat_view( T (&arr)[N] );

Where flat_view_result<T[N]>::type is a Random Access Range. I think this  
maybe a good addition to the range library.