Re: [Boost-users] [Off topic] Strict Aliasing white paper redux

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [Off topic] Strict Aliasing white paper redux
From: Patrick Horgan (phorgan1_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-03 19:45:19

On 01/03/2011 11:02 AM, Mateusz Loskot wrote:
> On 03/01/11 06:11, Patrick Horgan wrote:
>> My intention is to write a paper that will make it so that I won't
>> have to keep answering the same questions over and over again;)  I'll
>> just point people at the paper.
> There is one already written.
> It is "Understanding Strict Aliasing" by Mike Acton
>
> http://cellperformance.beyond3d.com/articles/2006/06/understanding-strict-aliasing.html
>
> Best regards,
Yes, I've read that one, (which I quite like), and many others, some of 
high quality and some not quite so much.  What mine does that I think is 
useful is that it points out the misunderstanding that leads to so much 
confusion.  If you have this confusion, you read papers such as the one 
that you referenced from the viewpoint of your misunderstanding and 
leave as confused as you came.  The paper you referred to, while one of 
the best, assumes that people understand more than many do, and doesn't 
dispel the confusions, rather mixing as it goes along information about 
type-punning and information about the aliasing rules.  I hope my paper, 
by clearly speaking to the two audiences and about what each wants to 
accomplish, fixes that problem.  I haven't found any other that speaks 
to that misunderstanding, but it's at the heart of most of the posts I 
see on the web.

Patrick