Re: How can I use unqualified names? (Possibly hard or impossible?)

From:
"Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@start.no>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:53:54 +0200
Message-ID:
<h40ivk$vvh$1@news.eternal-september.org>
* Alf P. Steinbach:

Problem: long qualified option names are impractical and unreadable, but
short good names like 'x' can easily conflict with client code.
Especially where that client code cretating an Options instance is a
constructor initializer list a 'using namespace...' isn't practical (as
far as I can see, but I may be wrong). I started thinking in terms of
ADL and such, but no dice: my brain cannot come up with good solution,
even now after having slept on it!


First, thanks to Jonathan Lee (else-thread) for a different tack on the option
pack problem, the problem that led to the above. Yeah, I'm using that and'ing
scheme for simpler options, those that are encoded as bit-fields. But I don't
quite see how it helps with the above.

Anyway, I found a sort of almost-solution, shown below.

It doesn't get rid of qualification as I wanted, but it reduces qualification to
only one qualifier, which can be freely named within a usage class.

It's sort of like if one could have 'using namespace foo=' within a class. :-)

Might be a useful technique on its own.

<code>
template< typename OptionValues >
class Options_: public OptionValues
{
public:
     template< typename OptionType >
     Options_& operator<<( OptionType const& option )
     {
         //STATIC_ASSERT( IS_DERIVED_AND_BASE( Options_, OptionType ) );
         static_cast<OptionType&>(*this) = option;
         return *this;
     }

     template< typename OptionType >
     OptionType const& as() const
     {
         //STATIC_ASSERT( IS_DERIVED_AND_BASE( Options_, OptionType ) );
         return static_cast<OptionType const&>( *this );
     }
};

template< typename T, typename Unique >
struct OptionsMember_
{
     T member;
     OptionsMember_(): member() {}
     OptionsMember_( T const& aValue ): member( aValue ) {}
     operator T& () { return member; }
     operator T const& () const { return member; }
};

struct Nix {};

template<
     class T,
     class U = Nix,
     class V = Nix,
     class W = Nix,
     class X = Nix,
     class Y = Nix,
     class Z = Nix
     >
     struct WithMembers_;

template< class T, class U, class V, class W, class X, class Y, class Z >
struct WithMembers_: T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z {};

template< class T, class U, class V, class W, class X, class Y >
struct WithMembers_<T, U, V, W, X, Y>: T, U, V, W, X, Y {};

template< class T, class U, class V, class W, class X >
struct WithMembers_<T, U, V, W, X>: T, U, V, W, X {};

template< class T, class U, class V, class W >
struct WithMembers_<T, U, V, W>: T, U, V, W {};

template< class T, class U, class V >
struct WithMembers_<T, U, V>: T, U, V {};

template< class T, class U >
struct WithMembers_<T, U>: T, U {};

template< class T >
struct WithMembers_<T>: T {};

//------------------------ Usage:

#include <iostream>

namespace blahblah {
namespace reallyLongName {
namespace california {
namespace pos2 {
     typedef OptionsMember_<double, struct UniqueTypeFor_x> x;
     typedef OptionsMember_<double, struct UniqueTypeFor_y> y;
     typedef Options_< WithMembers_<x, y> > Options;

     struct Names
     {
         typedef pos2::Options Options;
         typedef pos2::x x;
         typedef pos2::y y;
     };
}}}} // namespace blahblah::reallyLongName::california::pos2

struct UserClass1
{
     //using namespace pos2 = blahblah::reallyLongName::california::pos2;
     typedef ::blahblah::reallyLongName::california::pos2::Names pos2;

     UserClass1( pos2::Options const& options )
     {
         using namespace std;
         cout << options.pos2::x::member << endl;
         cout << options.pos2::y::member << endl;
     }
};

namespace blahblah {
namespace reallyLongName {
namespace california {
namespace pos3 {
     typedef OptionsMember_<double, struct UniqueTypeFor_z> z;
     typedef Options_< WithMembers_<pos2::Options, z> > Options;

     struct Names: pos2::Names
     {
         typedef pos3::Options Options;
         typedef pos3::z z;
     };
}}}} // namespace blahblah::reallyLongName::california::pos3

struct UserClass2: UserClass1
{
     //using namespace pos3 = blahblah::reallyLongName::california::pos3;
     typedef ::blahblah::reallyLongName::california::pos3::Names pos3;

     UserClass2( pos3::Options const& options )
         : UserClass1( options )
     {
         using namespace std;
         cout << std::endl;
         cout << options.pos3::x::member << endl;
         cout << options.pos3::y::member << endl;
         cout << options.pos3::z::member << endl;
     }
};

int main()
{
     //using namespace pos3 = blahblah::reallyLongName::california::pos3;
     typedef UserClass2::pos3 pos3;
     UserClass2( pos3::Options() << pos3::x(3.14) << pos3::z(42) );
}
</code>

Now, if I could just see some way to use e.g. macros to make the option pack
definitions less verbose & more readable...

Cheers,

- Alf

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