Re: [boost] [GSoC][MPL11] Post C++Now update

Subject: Re: [boost] [GSoC][MPL11] Post C++Now update
From: Joel de Guzman (djowel_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-05-19 19:18:58

On 5/20/14, 1:34 AM, Matt Calabrese wrote:
> On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 6:11 AM, Zach Laine <whatwasthataddress_at_[hidden]>wrote:
>
>> I was one of the people at the conference that tried to convince Louis to
>> approach things this way.  I wasn't the only one, and I can only speak for
>> myself.  The advantage to me is that I might have a library that I can use
>> to do *both* compile-time only, and runtime+compiletime operations.  Now
>> that I have constexpr function and decltype(), I find the lines between
>> compiletime and runtime operations to be sufficiently blurred that I don't
>> draw the clear distinction I once did.  For instance, in C++14, I can
>> simply elide certain metafunctions I used to require to compute the return
>> values of certain functions -- anything that can be done with a fold can be
>> written in the form "auto foo (args) { return fold(some_fn, args); }".
>>   This makes me gravitate towards a solution that marries runtime and
>> compile time as much as possible.
>>
>
> I, too, am in support of this and stand by it being an ideal, unless that
> ideal proves unfeasible to implement or use. Louis also noticed one huge
> advantage of this that cannot be understated -- if a new mpl is implemented
> using the automatic return type deduction approach, regardless of whether
> or not it is actually merged with fusion, it provides a very powerful way
> to debug metaprograms -- simply call the function without decltype but with
> the same parameters and you can then step through the code in your favorite
> debugger at runtime, including the ability to set breakpoints and step
> through line by line. Just make sure that you force your arguments to not
> be constexpr so that the evaluation happens at runtime for the sake of
> debugging.

Wow, that is awesome! I wanted to be able to do that for a long time!

Regards,
-- 
Joel de Guzman
http://www.ciere.com
http://boost-spirit.com
http://www.cycfi.com/