Re: STL::glice vs cstdio

From:
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Daniel_Kr=FCgler?= <daniel.kruegler@googlemail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Fri, 2 Jul 2010 15:15:31 CST
Message-ID:
<39550f63-4599-4b75-a756-c54ba54afefe@c10g2000yqi.googlegroups.com>
On 1 Jul., 17:03, n...@cam.ac.uk wrote:

In article <b17b6daf-48e2-464d-bcb5-f1e0c71d2...@b35g2000yqi.googlegroups.com>,

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Daniel_Kr=FCgler?= <daniel.krueg...@googlemail.com> wrote:

Let me first ask a question: According to which
standard (C++98, C++03, C++0x) did you compile your
code? (See below, why)?


C++0x, I am afraid :-( But I checked against examples, tutorials etc.
on the Web and a couple of books to avoid using too much new stuff. Not
ideal, I know, and I really should get hold of a copy of C++03.


Hmmh, this must be a buggy implementation then, because
within C++0x std::gslice_array is a copyable type (see
below).

using namespace std;


I'm not kidding, but did you really write this using-
directive *in front* of the std headers and w/o any
previous namespace std definition? If so, your
compiler must be very tolerant (it should not even
be allowed in C++98 to use a using-directive w/o
a previous namespace definition) and I strongly suggest
to move this directive after the include's.


Thanks for the advice. I can't find that restriction at all in C++0x,
and I can think of no reason that it's necessary, but it costs
nothing to change.


This restriction does still exist in C++0x, because
it violates the grammar:

using-directive:
  attribute-specifieropt using namespace ::opt nested-name-
specifieropt namespace-name;

and

namespace-name:
  original-namespace-name
  namespace-alias

This means that namespace-name must refer to a previously
defined namespace.

As of C++98/03 this code should be ill-formed, because
std::gslice_array is not copyable. You should look
carefully at this, because if the compiler accepts
this, it might just work or - with some bad luck - it
might produce something nasty. This restriction has
been removed as of C++0x, though.


That is almost certainly the problem, then. It's thoroughly shoddy to
generate code that doesn't work with no comment, of a nature that can
be detected statically.

None of the gslice tutorials and descriptions I saw mentioned that
gslice_array is not copyable, which isn't good of them, either.


There is some problem with the old specification and you
could argue that in C++03 there must be a defect because
of this. In fact it was recognized as a library defect, see:

http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/lwg-defects.html#253

But I know of libraries which *really* (still) declare the
copy-constructor private - as specified in the C++03 standard.

The standard says in all three versions that you meet
undefined behaviour, if the non-const overload of
valarray's operator[](const gslice&) sees degenerate
indices. I did calculate your indices by hand, but
I didn't find a violation of this restriction.

I also checked for normal boundary violations but I
didn't find any. This doesn't mean that there aren't any,
but I want just to give you the best information at
your hands that are available to me.


That is very kind - thanks very much. The reason that there aren't
any is that my base code contains checking against both of those;
I removed it for the example I posted.


Understandable, because you already explained that
you simplified the program to a minimum that still
demonstrated the defect.

HTH & Greetings from Bremen,

Daniel Kr?gler

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