From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-04-27 07:32:08
Howard Hinnant <hinnant_at_[hidden]> writes:
> On Apr 26, 2005, at 12:08 PM, David Abrahams wrote:
>
>> I had this disagreement with Thorsten in Lillehammer (or was it
>> Oxford?) but he was unimpressed with my arguments. I was wondering
>> what Boost as a whole would think:
>>
>> My Thesis: the library should support copying and assignment of
>> pointer containers using the usual copy/assignment syntax, rather
>> than only allowing a copy via a clone() function.
>>
>> Rationale: Not being able to copy and assign pointer containers is an
>> arbitrary restriction that limits usefulness and expressivity. The
>> argument Thorsten gives against copyability is that the elements
>> would have to be clone()d rather than copied, which is expensive
>> because there's a dynamic allocation per element. I don't get it;
>> we don't arbitrarily prohibit copying of std::vector<std::string>
>> even though that incurs a dynamic allocation per element.
>>
>> Example: Consider std::pair<int,some_pointer_container>. Almost
>> nothing works. IIUC, it's not copyable, can't be initialized, and
>> can't be clone()d.
>
> Why not just a clone_ptr<T> which calls clone on copy construction /
> assignment? Then you could std::container<clone_ptr<T>>.
That makes insertion in a std::vector<clone_ptr<T> > expensive. But
this is really beside my point.
> On your thesis: The library should only support copying and
> assignment of pointer containers using the usual copy/assignment
> syntax if a non-destructive copy of the pointer can be made.
The pointers are just plain pointers, so it can.
> The proposed std::container<unique_ptr<T>> won't be such a
> container. Having std::container<auto_ptr<T>> fail at compile time
> is still a good idea. Otherwise it would destructively copy with
> copy syntax.
This seems to be beside my point also.
> <sigh> I realize these thoughts are a little ahead of their time at
> the moment due to the lack of compilers/libs which would make
> std::vector<clone_ptr<T>> acceptably efficient.
In preparing my notes for speaking about rvalue references at ACCU I
realized that move semantics can be fully accomplished within the
current language, if clumsily. The forwarding problem really makes
new compilers _necessary_. Of course, move without forwarding is not
really all that compelling anyway.
-- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com