Re: [boost] Is there any interest in a library which solves C++ class reflection feature just like Java does?

Subject: Re: [boost] Is there any interest in a library which solves C++ class reflection feature just like Java does?
From: Matus Chochlik (chochlik_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-12-07 08:33:21

On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 2:21 PM, Roman Perepelitsa
<roman.perepelitsa_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 2011/12/7 Larry Evans <cppljevans_at_[hidden]>
>
>> On 12/07/11 06:51, Roman Perepelitsa wrote:
>> > 2011/12/7 Vicente J. Botet Escriba <vicente.botet_at_[hidden]>
>> >
>> >> So please, don't start a discussion stating that we need a
>> >> compile-time/run-time or c++11/c++98 library. All the combinations have
>> its
>> >> usage, each one with its advantages and liabilities.
>> >>
>> >
>> > Point is that it's possible to build runtime reflection on top of
>> > compile-time reflection, but the opposite isn't true. One can even claim
>> > that runtime reflection *must* be implemented on top of compile-time
>> > reflection, so proposing *just* runtime reflection is pointless.
>> Hi Roman,
>>
>> Could you please show an example run-time reflection being build on top
>> of compile-time reflection
>
>
> Mirror is such a library.

Compare for example this:

http://kifri.fri.uniza.sk/~chochlik/mirror-lib/html/doxygen/mirror/html/d5/dba/mirror_2example_2meta_prog_03_8cpp-example.html

with this:

http://kifri.fri.uniza.sk/~chochlik/mirror-lib/html/doxygen/lagoon/html/df/dca/lagoon_2example_2for_each_11_8cpp-example.html

both applications do similar things; print the "kind" (type,
namespace, template,
etc.) of a member of a namespace and its name.

The first uses compile-time reflection, the second uses run-time reflection
and the run-time meta-objects are based completely on the compile-time
meta-objects.

Also, in the run-time case, there is nothing (that I know of) preventing you
from using just the meta-object interfaces in your application,
compiling their implementations (the actual meta-objects) into a separate
dynamic library / shared object and loading and querying them on demand
from the application.

for more examples of compile-time vs. run-time reflection see here:

http://kifri.fri.uniza.sk/~chochlik/mirror-lib/html/doxygen/mirror/html/examples.html

and here:

http://kifri.fri.uniza.sk/~chochlik/mirror-lib/html/doxygen/lagoon/html/examples.html

or just start a the main page of the docs:

http://kifri.fri.uniza.sk/~chochlik/mirror-lib/html/

Best,

Matus