Re: Preprocessor

From:
James Kanze <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sat, 1 Aug 2009 01:35:55 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<3965b88a-8bc8-4303-afeb-0d573e203d3a@w41g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 31, 2:07 pm, p...@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon)
wrote:

"buch...@gmail.com" <buch...@gmail.com> writes:

is there a way to test if a variable is defined by a
preprocessor directive? Suppose, for example, I want to
simplify this code by using two macros:
Timer t1;
t1.start();
... // some action
t1.stop();
std::cout << "..." << endl;

#define TIMER_START(x) // defines timer tx and starts timing
#define TIMER_STOP(x) // stops timer tx and prints out the elapsed
time

However, the problem arises when I try to call
TIMER_START(1) twice in the same block since there's
redefinition of t1. Is there a way to extend the
TIMER_START(x) macro such that it would first test if the
timer tx exists to avoid compiler errors?


It would be better if you defined a scoping couple of macros.
Assume you want expanded code such as:

   {
      Timer tXYZ;
      try{
         tXYZ.start();

         [BODY]

         tXYZ.stop();
       }catch(...){
         tXYZ.stop();
         throw;
       }
    }

Then it wouldn't matter if you used the same name in an
embedded version:

   {
      Timer tXYZ;
      try{
         tXYZ.start();

        {
           Timer tXYZ;
           try{
              tXYZ.start();

              [BODY]

              tXYZ.stop();
            }catch(...){
              tXYZ.stop();
              throw;
            }
         }
         tXYZ.stop();
       }catch(...){
         tXYZ.stop();
         throw;
       }
    }

you would still have two different timers, and the references
to each are well scoped, lexically.

#define WITH_TIMER_BEGIN(TIMEOUT) \
   do{ \
      Timer CURRENT_TIMER; \
      try{ \
         CURRENT_TIMER.start(TIMEOUT); \
         { \
           int CURRENT_TIMER=0; /* hides the real timer */

#define END_WITH_TIMER \
         } \
         CURRENT_TIMER.stop(); \
       }catch(...){ \
         CURRENT_TIMER.stop(); \
         throw; \
       } \
    }while(0)

and write:

    WITH_TIMER_BEGIN(Minute(3)){
        do_something_slow();
    }END_WITH_TIMER;

    WITH_TIMER_BEGIN(Minute(3)){
        do_something_slow();
        WITH_TIMER_BEGIN(Second(15)){
          do_something_not_too_slow();
        }END_WITH_TIMER;
        do_something_slow();
    }END_WITH_TIMER;


Putting mismatched braces in a macro is a nice trick to render
the code unreadable. There are very few cases where it is
justified (although admittedly, this may be one). Why not just
use a class, which reads the timer in the constructor and the
destructor? (Presumably, you'll also want to capture the
results somewhere, so the constructor needs a reference to
that.)

Having said that... All his macro gains him is one line, that
which declares the variable. IMHO, it's not worth it.

--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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