Re: [boost] review request: addition to type_traits library ofhas_operator_xxx

Subject: Re: [boost] review request: addition to type_traits library ofhas_operator_xxx
From: Stewart, Robert (Robert.Stewart_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-11-22 08:48:53

Jeff Flinn wrote:
>
> Also given the growth of EDSL's and operator overloading in
> general are these names too domain specific? For example
> boost::filesystem overloads operator/ for concatenating a
> path: p / "file.txt".
>
> Has thought been given to more agnostic names such as:
>
> has_operator_star
> has_operator_slash
> has_operator_plus
> has_operator_minus
> ...

That's an interesting idea, but standardized names for the characters would be necessary.  "Star" is colloquial; "asterisk" is more appropriate.  Instead of "minus," "hyphen" seems more correct and what about the unary versus binary overloads?  Here's a longer list to consider:

has_operator_hyphen_unary
has_operator_hyphen_binary
has_operator_tilde
has_operator_exclamation
has_operator_percent
has_operator_caret (not "circumflex" which is a diacritical)
has_operator_ampersand
has_operator_asterisk
has_operator_pipe
has_operator_left_guillemet?
has_operator_right_guillemet?

Since the guillemets are real characters, and the C++ operators are formed by two characters parsed as one token, using "guillemet" isn't correct.  One could also use "chevron" which are sometimes doubled to represent guillemets, but the less-than and greater-than characters are not chevrons.  Calling them "left shift" and "right shift" brings one full circle to naming the operators for the operations they represent on built-in types, while "insertion" and "extraction" are related to their use with IOStreams.  I don't know what to call those.

The contrary view to what you've suggested is to note in the documentation that the operators are named for their use with built-in types and leave it at that.

_____
Rob Stewart                           robert.stewart_at_[hidden]
Software Engineer, Core Software      using std::disclaimer;
Susquehanna International Group, LLP  http://www.sig.com

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