Re: [boost] Adding polymorphic_value to boost

Subject: Re: [boost] Adding polymorphic_value to boost
From: Peter Dimov (lists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-11-19 23:06:32

Jonathan Coe wrote:

> I'd like to propose adding the class-template `polymorphic_value` to 
> boost.
>
> `polymorphic_value` is designed to allow the compiler to correctly 
> generate special member functions for classes with polymorphic components 
> (It's `any` with an interface).
>
> `polymorphic_value` has been proposed for standardisation in P0201 and has 
> advanced through the Library Evolution group in Albuquerque (Nov 5-10).
>  https://wg21.link/p0201
>
> A working draft of the proposal and implementation can be found at
> https://github.com/jbcoe/polymorphic_value
>
> I gave a presentation about polymorphic_value at C++::London here:
> https://skillsmatter.com/skillscasts/9539-a-polymorphic-value-type-for-c-plus-plus
>
> Matt Calabrese has kindly offered to be review manager.

I endorse this submission provided that the repo submitted is organized 
according to Boost standards with documentation in doc/, headers in 
include/boost/, tests in test/. For examples of how a library directory 
layout looks like, you can use small Boost libraries such as f.ex. 
https://github.com/boostorg/assert (documentation in AsciiDoc) and 
https://github.com/boostorg/align (documentation in QuickBook.)

I had a very similar thing (called ref<T> at the time), complete with the 
copier and the deleter, many years ago that I never got around to proposing. 
It seems to have been lost along with the Yahoo Boost group.

PS. The code is fine. There's no need to reformat it.