Re: new foo::foo() erroneous, ugly, or OK?

From:
"kanze" <kanze@gabi-soft.fr>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
29 Jun 2006 04:48:02 -0400
Message-ID:
<1151491323.067486.235310@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>
johnchx2@yahoo.com wrote:

Victor Bazarov wrote:

usenet@schweikhardt.net wrote:

int main (void)
{
    foo *myfoo = new foo::foo();
    delete myfoo;
    return 0;
}


It is perfectly fine. 'foo' _class_ owns the name 'foo' as
its own type. 'foo::foo' is just as good as a *type-id* as,
for example 'foo::foo::foo::foo::foo::foo'. There should be
no error report.


I don't think this is correct. There is specific language
(5.1/7) that makes foo::foo refer to the constructor, not to
the class name.


The sure hid it. Note that this section only applies to
expressions, however: foo::foo names the constructor in an
expression, but is simply another name for foo elsewhere.

In the new draft, there's additional language that inhibits
this in the context of an elaborated type specifier, so

   struct foo::foo

is a type name, even though

   foo::foo

is not. See:

   http://www2.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_defects.html#318

It looks like Comeau online already implements this behavior.


It also looks like the text has changed several times. But as I
understand it, the new draft actually allows the use of foo::for
in many more contexts: the new wording (according to the defect
report you cite) says that the name will only be considered a
constructor in a context where the name of a constructor would
be "an acceptable lookup result". I'm not too sure what the
quoted phrase is supposed to mean: acceptable by what criteria?
(And how can the name of a constructor ever be the result of a
lookup, given ?12.1/1 "Constructors do not have names." I don't
think we've heard the last of this.) In the initial example, for
example, a constructor is not acceptable in a new expression, so
the initial example would be legal. As I read it:

  -- According the 1998 edition of the C++ standard, the initial
     posting is illegal, because of 5.1/7. Anywhere outside of
     an expression, however, foo::foo (or foo::foo::foo...) is a
     legal synonym for foo.

  -- According to TC1 (and thus C++ 2003, I think), foo::foo
     always means the constructor, and things like foo::foo...
     are illegal pretty much everywhere. (I'm not sure if this
     holds for things like foo::foo::bar; lookup of names before
     a :: follows somewhat different rules, and function names
     are ignored. So... do we ignore the constructor, as a
     function, or do we consider that having found the class, its
     name is forced to be that of a constructor in this context.)

  -- According to the latest working draft (supposing the actual
     text is that of the DR you cited), the initial posting is
     legal (depending a bit on the meaning of "acceptable lookup
     result"---a constructor is certainly not acceptable here,
     but is it unacceptable as a lookup result, or for other
     reasons?). As is foo::foo::foo... Or perhaps 5.1/7 still
     stands, and in an expression...

I'll admit that I'm still having trouble getting my head around
the idea that (?12.1/1) constructors do not have names, and name
lookup finds the name of a constructor.

--
James Kanze GABI Software
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