Re: [boost] New dependency report

Subject: Re: [boost] New dependency report
From: Peter Dimov (lists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-06-07 15:19:57

Andrey Semashev wrote:

> I was thinking you were proposing a replacement for deriving traits from 
> bool_.

More precisely, I was proposing a way for code that dispatches on bool_ to 
not require derivation from bool_. So that a library can use a core type 
trait (that does not derive from anything) and core::bool_ to dispatch in 
the same way it did before.

This is not a magic replacement. It still requires source changes.

> My point was that your proposed bool_ doesn't fully reflect the current 
> interface, so it can't replace it. In that case, is there a point to it?

Maybe. It depends.

The point is that there are two general types of MPL dependencies: libraries 
that do use metaprogramming facilities, and libraries that only use bool_, 
if_, and_, and similar things. If these things exist in Core, a library of 
the second kind can drop its MPL dependency.

Of course, if these facilities are split into 'mpl_core', this will 
considerably lessen the need for duplication in 'core'.

Duplicating in 'core' has the advantage of not worrying about backward 
compatibility so we can avoid the no longer necessary workarounds and 
(ideally) offer the simplest and most straightforward implementation. And 
not duplicating has the advantage that there's no duplication. :-)

> TypeTraits will still derive from mpl::bool_.

I'm not sure that our existing type traits need to continue deriving from 
mpl::bool_. They already derive from boost::integral_constant, which is 
expected to provide ::type as that's a requirement on 
std::integral_constant. On the other hand, there are likely many uses of 
type traits in an MPL context and I'm not sure what places, if any, need the 
::tag for instance.

> We don't need another bool_ in Core (yet) and TypeTraits.Core would be 
> enough for us.

Replacing use of TypeTraits with use of core type traits is precisely what 
demands the use of another bool_, because you can no longer use the old 
mpl::bool_ for dispatching a core type trait. Either we enhance mpl::bool_ 
with a converting constructor, or we switch to core::bool_.