Re: static or not?

From:
"Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@start.no>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:14:06 +0100
Message-ID:
<13pu60pr9k5mc74@corp.supernews.com>
* kwikius:

On Jan 28, 11:50 pm, diligent.sn...@gmail.com wrote:

Looks like the CopyConstructible will be dropped for std::min and
std::max; but for current implementations it is a requirement.

Thank you for the detailed reply.


Could add that its an unnecessary requirement AFAICS. (Perhaps the
return type was changed from value to const reference at some point.)

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>

struct my{
explicit my (double v_in) : v (v_in){};
  double v;
private :
   my ( my const &);

};

inline bool operator <
(my const & lhs, my const & rhs)
{
   return lhs.v < rhs.v;
}

int main()
{
  my x(1),y(2);
  my const & r = std::min(x,y);


Consider instead

   my const& r = std::min( x, my(2) );

Note: incorrectly compiles with MSVC 7.1, is diagnosed with g++ 3.4.4
and of course with Comeau.

I first learned about this silly requirement of class having an
accessible copy constructor when (among a great many others) helping to
review Andrei Alexandrescu's Mojo library, a way to implement "move"
construction (library-implemented RVO) in current standard C++. That
attempt sort of stranded on this requirement, that the implementation
should be free to make a temporary copy instead of just providing a
reference directly to the rvalue. Happily, will be removed in C++0x
:-), but, of course, that yields more Potential Dangers, like if the
code above was accepted with std::min implemented with ordinary current
references instead of new-fangled moving rvalue references.

Uh.

I wonder if the code above will be valid in C++0x, and if so, how the
heck the compiler could implement the necessary lifetime extension for
the temporary?

  // my z = std::max(x,y); //error private cctor
  std::cout << r.v <<'\n';
}


Off-topic, but: Comeau Online's error message is ungrokkable while
g++'s error message is simple and to the point. Difference: that Comeau
implements concept checking. The C++0x technology that's meant to
provide /simpler/ error messages!

Cheers, & hth.,

- Alf

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