[boost] template meta-programm debugging helper as a library

From: Joel FALCOU (joel.falcou_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-06-06 12:15:12

Hello,

during the past years, I stumbled across various bugs in template 
meta-programms and found useful to have a small tools that is able to 
display at runtime the exact type of a given object or template type as 
a basic std::string in code fragments like :

template<class T, template<class,class> class X > struct
{
   static inline DoSomething( T const & x)
   {
     // soem code
     std::cout 	<< "Currently instanciating : "
                << identify< X<T,typename T::type> >::Name()
                << std::endl;
   }
};

Basically this small library replace typeid and its non-standard name() 
method by a meta-programmed class (identify) which is able to handle 
various classic types (being template or not themselves). I was 
wondering if such a library could be of interest and be submitted as a 
possible addition to Boost or if this scope (type name display) was too 
mundane.

If the former, I'll be glad to post some more material and discuss a 
possible rationale.

Regards

-- 
Joel FALCOU
Research Engineer @ Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale
Université PARIS SUD XI
France