Re: [boost] variant - off topic

Subject: Re: [boost] variant - off topic
From: Andrzej Krzemienski (akrzemi1_at_[hidden])
Date: 2019-04-03 22:08:33

śr., 3 kwi 2019 o 23:28 Robert Ramey via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]>
napisał(a):

> I've been and observer on the discussions regarding variant, expected,
> outcome, optional, outcome and ?? for sometime.  I'm pretty amazed at
> the amount of controversy each and everyone of these in every forum -
> here, C++ committee, etc.  I'm beginning to wonder this isn't telling us
> something.
>
> It seems natural that when making a new C++ data type, we should want to
> implement the assignment operator. Why - well every variable needs to be
> assigned to from time to time.  Why is this so?  Well ...
>
> Suppose we break this assumption and consider the idea that assignment
> doesn't make sense for every type.  A variant is a "meta-type" or "sum
> type" which "holds" one of a set of other types. Such a variant can take
> on the character of any one of type types it is holding.  When does it
> make conceptual sense for a variable to change it's type one it has been
> initially assigned.  I've been trying to think of one and haven't been
> successful.  Here are a few of the scenarios I've considered.
>
> a) Returning a sum type - the most common scenario for a variant.
> Doesn't require a assignment.  Copy/move may still be required of course.
>
> b) looping through a vector of variants as in
>
> vector variant<...> v;
> for( variant<...> v : [](){...}
>
> fix with change to
>
> vector variant<...> v;
> for( variant<...> & v : [](){...}
>
> c) set according to condition
>
> variant<...> r;
> if(i < 0)
>         r = v<t1>(...)
> else
>         r = v<t2>(...)
>
> fix with change to
>
> variant <...> r = (i < 0) ? v<t1>(...) : v<t2>(...);
>
> d) insert your own use case here.  That is, look at your own usages of
> assignment to these types and see if there is not an easy way to
> re-factor your code to avoid assignment.
>
> I'll concede that, influenced by functional programming style, with a
> little experimentation with F# and propaganda from the Haskell
> community, I've become accustomed to code in the above way.  Also I've
> become afraid to assign anything to these types.  The discussion has
> made me aware of a raft of unintended consequences of doing what on it's
> surface seems a trivial operation.  I've gotten to the point that
> assignment to a variant type, or "changing the type" of a value at
> runtime is not code smell to me.  Maybe all this could be just
> eliminated if this became the accepted position.
>
> Of course I realize that by engaging in the practice I do, the whole
> issue becomes irrelevant to me personally.  And I can always create
> variant types as "const". It's not about that.  It's about avoiding the
> creating of vocabulary types which lead to problems.
>
> So - simple proposal.  Require that sum types have operator= deleted.
>

Interestingly, the current work on the language variant (
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p0095r2.html) goes
into a somewhat similar direction. If types stored in the variant are
unfriendly (strong guarantee cannot be offered) the assignment is
implicitly declared as deleted. Users can still choose to define it and
provide the implementation of their liking.

Regards,
&rzej;