Re: default contructing an object of unknown type T

From:
Kai-Uwe Bux <jkherciueh@gmx.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:22:50 +0200
Message-ID:
<i2vcar$80l$1@news.doubleSlash.org>
Francesco S. Carta wrote:

Kai-Uwe Bux <jkherciueh@gmx.net>, on 30/07/2010 20:57:06, wrote:

Francesco S. Carta wrote:

Keith H Duggar<duggar@alum.mit.edu>, on 30/07/2010 09:06:01, wrote:

On Jul 30, 10:49 am, "Balog Pal"<p...@lib.hu> wrote:

"Keith H Duggar"<dug...@alum.mit.edu>

I guess what I really want is 1) and 2), after detecting whether T
is fundamental or not.

T const& t = T() ;


I vaguely recall that even that requires access to the copy ctor, and
the
compiler is allowed to use it too, though most do not. (Even more
vaguely I recall an accident with MSVC version around 5.0 where copy
was actually used before binding the reference.)


Yeah, you are right. How odd.


Could someone point out some reference to this requirement? MinGW 4.4.0
allows the above statement even for T = [some type with copy constructor
declared private and not even defined] where that statement has no
access to the private interface of T.

If it is a requirement, the compiler should have refused the code I
posted in the other branch of this thread, but it compiled it just fine.


The clause is [8.5.3/5]:

   A reference to type ?cv1 T1? is initialized by an expression of type
   ?cv2 T2? as follows:
   - If the initializer expression
     [non applicable clause]
   - Otherwise, the reference shall be to a non-volatile const type
   (i.e.,
     cv1 shall be const).
     [example]
     - If the initializer expression is an rvalue, with T2 a class type,
     and
       ?cv1 T1? is reference-compatible with ?cv2 T2,? the reference is
       bound in one of the following ways (the choice is
       implementation-defined): - The reference is bound to the object
       represented by the rvalue (see
         3.10) or to a sub-object within that object.
       - A temporary of type ?cv1 T2? [sic] is created, and a constructor
       is
         called to copy the entire rvalue object into the temporary. The
         reference is bound to the temporary or to a sub-object within
         the temporary.
       The constructor that would be used to make the copy shall be
       callable whether or not the copy is actually done.
     - Otherwise [non applicable clause]


Thank you for reporting the reference, please read below.

Is it yet another GCC extension? In case, is it a compliant one, for
what you can tell?


No, it's not an extension. Also, g++ on linux rejects the following code:

class dummy {

   dummy ( dummy const& ) {}

public:

   dummy ( void ) {}

};

int main ( void ) {
   dummy x = dummy();
}

If the windows version accepts the code, it would be a bug.


No, it rejects it as expected. Could you please check if the Linux
version compiles the code I posted in my other follow-ups?

I'm not sure if the compiler is free to ignore the following:

"The constructor that would be used to make the copy shall be callable
whether or not the copy is actually done."


No, it is not. The operative word is "shall".

because it seems to be free to implement direct binding to the first
temporary:

"The reference is bound to the object represented by the rvalue"

(assuming I got it straight).

In any case, seems clear that the suggested change to the OP:

const T& t = T();

Is implementation defined and thus non-portable at least.


No, it's not implementation defined. It will work with C++0X but is illegal
as of now for types T with disabled copy constructor. G++ is buggy in this
regard (and I screwed up the test case). It does compile but should reject
the following:

class dummy {
  
  dummy ( dummy const & );

public:

  dummy ( void ) {}

};

int main ( void ) {
  const dummy & x = dummy();
}

Interesting to note: g++-4.2.3 rejects the code (with an error message
pointing out that the copy constructors is private) but g++-4.3.1 accepts
the code. Maybe, this is not so much a bug but a move toward C++0x.

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

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