Re: Warning

From:
"Leigh Johnston" <leigh@i42.co.uk>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 8 Mar 2010 12:48:42 -0000
Message-ID:
<XJCdnXR_krO3bwnWnZ2dnUVZ8nednZ2d@giganews.com>
"Michael Doubez" <michael.doubez@free.fr> wrote in message
news:bffc3535-8ad3-4816-b3cf-83f72c78e556@j27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...

On 8 mar, 12:01, "Leigh Johnston" <le...@i42.co.uk> wrote:

"Michael Doubez" <michael.dou...@free.fr> wrote in message

news:d962d8ed-d69e-4b5f-a224-bebd8dcafb83@e7g2000yqf.googlegroups.com...

On 5 mar, 11:25, "Leigh Johnston" <le...@i42.co.uk> wrote:

"Michael Doubez" <michael.dou...@free.fr> wrote in message
news:cdb20f88-8668-4092-972e-85a119dff724@j27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...

On 4 mar, 19:37, James Kanze <james.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

[snip]

Deriving from classes which weren't designed to be bases (such
as the standard containers) is generally a bad idea.


That's because, IMO the standard containers usually have a complete
interface and there is no need to.


The examples I gave where for the case where an interface needs to be
augmented but you use the word "usually" which is fine: "usually" is
not
"always".


But the corollary is that is seldom useful or a good design decision
to inherit from them. A complete interface means that functions or
composition should be used; AFAIS there are three cases:
 - the extended part is stateless: a function should be used
 - the extended part keeps associated state:
    * the extended class should be somewhat notified of modification
but the base class is not designed that way and composition should be
used (I exclude an external notify modification system)
    * the extended class doesn't need to be notified, both
information should be composed as a pair in another structure
    * the extended structure exploits the internal of the container:
this is not portable, even across the same version of the compiler.


Garbage.


Really ?
A minimal complete interface is IMO an essential value for general
purpose class design (I am not talking about classes implementing
specific use cases).

The "is-a" relationship is well defined


I am curious to hear your definition.

and perfectly fine.


I find it ambiguous: it depends on what you mean by "is".

In fact, I find it useful only in defining what is-not (i.e. what
should be composed and not inherited).

[snip]


--
Michael


Example of "is-a":

struct widget
{
  colour background;
  virtual void draw(device_context& dc) const
  {
    dc.fill_rect(client_rect(), background);
  }
  colour get_background() const { return background; }
};

struct label : widget
{
  virtual void draw(device_context& dc) const
  {
    widget::draw(dc); // erases background in background colour
    dc.draw_text(0, 0, get_background() ^ -1, label_text()); // draw text in
inverted colour
  }
};

label "is-a" widget, i.e. it inherits a widget's ability to fill in its
background and this behaviour is optional (label does not have to call
widget::draw()). label also inherits widget's background colour and can
query it for use in its own drawing code.

"is-a" is related to LSP:

struct window
{
  std::vector<widget*> widgets;
  device_context dc;
  void draw()
  {
    for (auto i = widgets.begin(); i != widgets.end(); ++i)
      i->draw(dc);
  }
}

i.e. if LSP is adhered to then a label can be passed to any function which
accepts a widget reference/pointer. This is the essence of the "is-a"
relationship.

/Leigh

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