Re: Old Meyers C++ compiler test no longer valid?

From:
"neurosion@gmail.com" <neurosion@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:15:18 CST
Message-ID:
<97906c44-7d5c-450f-918a-9df97e24cb1b@n11g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 18, 10:56 pm, litb <Schaub-Johan...@web.de> wrote:

On 17 Jul., 23:26, Russ Bryan <rbryan.nay...@gmail.com> wrote:

const class {
public:
   template <class T>
   operator T*() const {return 0;}

   template <class C, class T>
   operator const T C::*() const {return 0;}

} null = {};


This looks wrong to me. Doesn't it say that it's a

  "pointer to member of C of type const function taking () const and
returning ..."


That's what I thought at first, too. However, taking another look,
you'll notice that the conversion is NOT to a function. If it was a
pointer to a function it would require another set of parentheses and
matching arguments (and, in my testing, a class template instead of a
member template AND a helper template to provide the typedef). So
what this actually says is "const member of class <anonymous>
converting class <anonymous> to a pointer to a member of C with type
const T." Hence the name of the anonymous class, "null"; the effect
of the class is to null out any pointer it is assigned to.

-- Russ

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