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Subject: Re: [boost] Improved typesafe bitfield
From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-02-06 06:54:06


On 6 Feb 2016 at 12:00, Vicente J. Botet Escriba wrote:

> Do you see something wrong having two classes one for the bits enum and
> one for the set of those bits enums?
> Mixing both, the element and the set in a single class, has some
> drawbacks. The flag type is not an enum, that is, is_enum<flag>::value
> is false.

Tongari's solution split them as you describe.

I'm not against that solution, it's just a distinction I need to care
about during using them and I don't want to care. I just want C
bitfields which don't accidentally substitute for integers and
therefore lead to bugs.

> I don't see the added value of the macros and the inheritance
>
> #define BOOST_AFIO_BITFIELD_BEGIN(type) \
> struct type##_base \
> { \
> enum enum_type
>
> #define BOOST_AFIO_BITFIELD_END(type) \
> ;}; \
> using type = bitfield<type##_base>;
>
> template<class Enum> struct bitfield : public Enum
>
> Why do you need to inherit from Enum? to introduce the enumerators
> inside the defined type?

Exactly. I'm effectively wrapping an enum into a typesafe struct with
member functions.

> What about
>
> template<class Enum> struct bitfield_set
> {
> using enum_type = Enum;
> using underlying_type = std::underlying_type_t<enum_type>;
> private:
> underlying_type _value;
>
> ...
>
>
> enum class flag = unsigned {
> none=0,
> delete_on_close=1,
> disable_safety_fsyncs=2
> };
>
> using flags = bitfield_set<flag>;
>
> Example usage:
>
> flags f(flag::disable_safety_fsyncs);
> flags f2(f&flag::none);
> f2|=flag::delete_on_close;
> constexpr flags f3(flag::disable_safety_fsyncs);
> constexpr flags f4(f3&flag::none);
> if(f) ...

That's absolutely fine if you don't mind distinct types for the
enumerators and the flags. For me personally, I find myself typing
the wrong one in my code, and that's a source of compile errors and
therefore wasted productivity.

What is very annoying is that global operator overloads on a class
enum gets you 98% of the way there. If only one could overload a
global explicit bool operator ... we'd have our typesafe bit flags
type.

Niall

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