Re: [boost] poly_collection (was sentinels vs iterators)

Subject: Re: [boost] poly_collection (was sentinels vs iterators)
From: Brian Wood (woodbrian77_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-08-27 11:19:13

Ion Gazta?aga <igaztanaga <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
> El 23/08/2014 20:53, Joaquin M Lopez Munoz escribi?:

>> A container that is not a sequence, unordered but not associative.
>> unordered_collection might be an alternative name.

Oy vey.

> This name misses the critical feature that elements are polymorphic.

Why use collection rather than container?  poly_container.

>> An interesting addition to Boost.Container?

> If I had the time :-/ I' ve been considering working a little more on
> this to turn the initial sketch into something resembling a full-fledged
> container, but it'd take me some days' work I don't have.

I couldn't sleep for a while last night and my thoughts turned
to this subject.  I had thought this was an interesting (birds of
a feather) idea and then realized it would also be helpful from
a serialization perspective.  Rather than having to marshal a
type identifier before each instance, you could (iiuc) marshal
a type identifier and how many instances will follow.    Something
like

Derived_1_type_id   50
Derived_2_type_id   77

So it would reduce the serialization overhead compared to other
containers.

I think it's a good idea and look forward to seeing it developed further.

-- 
Brian
Ebenezer Enterprises - In G-d we trust.
http://webEbenezer.net