Re: invalid covariant type / forward declaration?

From:
Michael Tsang <miklcct@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:44:58 +0800
Message-ID:
<heu1di$v75$1@news.eternal-september.org>
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Sybolt de Boer wrote:

Robert Hairgrove wrote:

Sybolt de Boer wrote:

Considering the following situation, is there a way to tell class White
that a Black* is actually a valid Base*? In other words can I somehow
forward declare "class Black : public Base;" in White.h and vice versa?
Or am I trying to do something very bad and clearly illegal? :)

TIA, Sybolt

// Base.h
#ifndef BASE_H
#define BASE_H
class Base {
    public:
        virtual Base *colleague(int i) const = 0;
        virtual Base *opponent(int i) const = 0;
        ....
};

// White.h
#ifndef WHITE_H
#define WHITE_H
#include "Base.h"

class White : public Base {
    public:
        White *colleague(int i) const { return White::create(i); }
        Black *opponent(int i) const { return Black::create(i); }
        static White *create(int i);
        ....
};

// Black.h
#ifndef BLACK_H
#define BLACK_H
#include "Base.h"

class Black : public Base {
    public:
        Black *colleague(int i) const { return Black::create(i); }
        White *opponent(int i) const { return White::create(i); }
        static Black *create(int i);
        ....
};


Move the function definitions into a .cpp file for each class. You will
also need to return Base* from both of the member functions in order for
it to work.


Thanks for your reply. This is a heavily synthesized example. In reality
the definitions are in a seperate source file. What I want is to preserve
to color of the opponent, and not immediately degrade to a Base*. My
compiler will allow me to include White.h in Black.h, or Black.h in
White.h, but not both at the same time. I hope I'm making myself clear
here. :)


I don't think this is possible. Black depends on White and White depends on
Black so you need to use a forward declaration. However, a forward
declaration cannot contain base specifier so covariant return type cannot be
applied.
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