Re: [boost] [serialization] Doc problems

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-09-05 00:31:16

David Abrahams wrote:

> As I said, I understand the general intent.  It's the specific meaning
> that's unclear.  It's especally unclear because you say "must
> implement the following interface..." and then show one member
> function with an implementation.  You could provide that
> implementation by using a CRTP base class.

OK - I see this now.  In fact, in the archives provided, it is implemented 
using the CRTP model.  I concidered that as a feature of the implementation. 
I think I can adjust this to remove the implementations.  I see now that 
they don't belong here and that it is confusing.

>> Note that his concept is different than others in the standard
>> library in that one of the requirements is that it be  a class with
>> certain required member functions.
>>
>> Most or all other concept definitions only specify
>> operations for which the type is valid. As far as I know this doesn't
>> include supporting specific member functions.

> Actually, no.  All of the concepts in the Container hierarchy share
> that property.

Of course.  And I did study the SGI documentation in that regard.  Now that 
I think about, I'm sure this is where  I got the idea to do it this way.

> Well, CRTP might be a good option for you, especially considering that
> function implementation I mentioned in the first paragraph above.

As I said, Ive used CRTP in the implementation.  But I could imagine someone 
making an archive class that didn't use CRTP and still have the archive 
function.  So I see it as an implementation detail rather than part of the 
concept.

> So the question is, does the user actually need to use default
> arguments where your interface description does, or would overloads
> work just as well?  Since you don't have a description of how to
> interpret your prototype, the answer is unclear.

The only default argument is

    register_type(T * t = NULL);

and its only there because many compilers don't accept the syntax:

ar.template register_type<T>()

Its optional to support compilers that do support the above syntax. So I 
guess that should be explained.

Robert Ramey