Re: [boost] [futures] Request for Comments

From: Thorsten Schuett (schuett_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-08-16 11:32:25

On Tuesday 16 August 2005 15:23, David Abrahams wrote:
> Thorsten Schuett <schuett_at_[hidden]> writes:
> > Hartmut and I wrote a small library which implements futures for C++. I
> > uploaded the code to the boost-sandbox vault. If you find anything odd in
> > there (like e.g. overloading operator T()), you have to blame me, if you
> > find interesting stuff in there, you have to blame Hartmut.
> >
> > The most basic future is simple_future<T>. Its constructor takes a
> > function which returns T and spawns a new thread executing this function.
> > Afterwards you can call operator()() to block until the thread is done
> > and get the result.
>
> <snip>
>
> You asked for comments, so here goes: I find the apparently copious
> use of implicit conversions disturbing.  Especially disturbing is the
Hartmut already strongly opposed to include the operator T() for futures. I 
guess that I have to remove it :-(

The implicit conversion in the other direction is a little bit harder to get 
rid of. The type representing futures composed using '||' is currently to 
complex to easily write it down. But I need a handle to this future to pass 
it around. I see two solutions:
- we make the type less complex, but I am not sure whether that is possible.
- we add an explicit conversion function and remove the implicit conversion.

Thorsten