Re: Class layout

Hi,

the following code is the boiled-down version of something that
gives us trouble on GCC. In the real code, 'F' is some fixed-size
array class, 'Q' and 'V' are derived classes that probably aren't
very interesting for this question, 'B' is a 4x4 matrix base and
'M' is the matrix class in use.
The code works with VC and several versions of GCC, but in one
test using GCC it breaks with nonsensical values for the 2nd-4th
row of the matrix. The trouble is, it only does so when no
additional statements are added to the function (that's mimicked
here in 'main()') and not, if the code is run under a debugger.
The problem doesn't appear with this boiled-down example code, but
looking at the code and the symptoms, I have the suspicion that
this invokes UB anyway and would like the group's opinion whether
my suspicion is right.
'M<T>::data()'assumes that all of data members of the inherited
'F's are laid out contiguously. Can we assume this regarding to
the standard?

My suspicion is, we can't. But I don't know why we
either can and can't. I believe struct layout in C is rather
strict and reliable, but I don't know what's needed of the C++-
only features (inheritance, templates etc.) is needed to make
C++ deviate from that.

TIA,

Schobi

--8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<--

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

template< typename T >
struct F {
    T val[4];
    F()
{val[0]=T();val[1]=T();val[2]=T();val[3]=T();} F(T a0, T a1, T
          a2, T a3) {val[0]=a0 ;val[1]=a1
    ;val[2]=a2 ;val[3]=a3 ;} T& operator[](std::size_t i) {return
val[i];} const T& operator[](std::size_t i) const {return val[i];} T*
begin() {return
          &val[0];} const T* begin() const {return
&val[0];} T* end () {return
&val[4];} const T* end () const {return
&val[4];} };

template< typename T >
struct Q : public F<T> {
    Q() : F() {}
    Q(T a0, T a1, T a2, T a3) : F(a0,a1,a2,a3) {}
};

template< typename T >
struct V : public Q<T> {
    V() : Q() {}
    V(T a0, T a1, T a2, T a3) : Q(a0,a1,a2,a3) {}
};

template< typename T >
struct B : public V< V<T> > {
    typedef V<T> Row;

    B() {assign( 0, 0, 0, 0
                                                       , 0, 0, 0, 0
                                                       , 0, 0, 0, 0
                                                       , 0, 0, 0, 0
);}
    B( T a00, T a01, T a02, T a03
     , T a10, T a11, T a12, T a13
     , T a20, T a21, T a22, T a23
     , T a30, T a31, T a32, T a33 ) {assign( a00, a01,
                                                       a02, a03 ,
                                                       a10, a11, a12,
                                                       a13 , a20,
a21, a22, a23 , a30, a31, a32, a33 );}
    void assign( T a00, T a01, T a02, T a03
               , T a10, T a11, T a12, T a13
               , T a20, T a21, T a22, T a23
               , T a30, T a31, T a32, T a33 )
    {

this->val[0][0]=a00;this->val[0][1]=a01;this->val[0][2]=a02;this->val[0][3]=a03;
this->val[1][0]=a10;this->val[1][1]=a11;this->val[1][2]=a12;this->val[1][3]=a13;
this->val[2][0]=a20;this->val[2][1]=a21;this->val[2][2]=a22;this->val[2][3]=a23;
this->val[3][0]=a30;this->val[3][1]=a31;this->val[3][2]=a32;this->val[3][3]=a33;
}
};

template< typename T >
struct M : public B<T> {
    M() : B<T>(), i() {}
    const T* data() const {return
    B<T>::begin()->begin();} int i;
};

int main()
{
    M<float> matrix;
    matrix.assign(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15);
    const float* data = matrix.data();

    for( std::size_t i = 0; i < 16; ++i ) {
        std::cout << data[i] << '\n';
    }

    return 0;
}