Re: Check whether two functions are compatible using metaprogramming.

From:
David Abrahams <dave@boost-consulting.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:09:51 CST
Message-ID:
<87ir099i74.fsf@gutsy.luannocracy.com>
on Wed Feb 20 2008, Rodolfo Lima <rodlima-AT-gmail.com> wrote:

On 19 fev, 10:59, Thomas Lehmann <t.lehm...@rtsgroup.net> wrote:

2) Meta programming. I just want to know wether two types
    are the same or not!


Unfortunately that's not what I really meant by using two functions
interchangeably. If you make a string comparison of, say, void(*)
(double) and int(*)(int), your metafunction will say that they're
(rightfully) different. But say I have:

int test(int a) { return a; }

std::function<void(double>> f = a;

It is valid and compiles, although the function signatures are
different. I want a metafunction that tells me whether we can set a
particular std::function to another function which signatures are
different, but 'compatible', as is in this case.

My real issue is with function overloading. Suppose I have two
functions:
void func(std::function<void(int)> f) {}
void func(std::function<void(int,int)> f) {}

The correct overload would only be resolved if the parameter I'm
passing is a std::function with the correct signature. If I pass, for
instance, a 'int test(int) {}' pointer to func, instead of resolving
to the first overload, the compiler will say the call is ambiguous. I
want to disambiguate this by using SFINAE, by removing the unwanted
overload from the overload set.


It's is easy to do for function pointers: you just peel apart the type
using partial specialization and check that int is convertible to each
parameter type, but there's nothing that will tell you whether an
arbitrary function object qualifies. Consider:

      struct f
      {
          void operator()(std::string) const {}
      };

      f x;
      func(x);

Do you care about cases like that one?

--
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://boost-consulting.com

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