Re: VC++ 6.0 workaround for partial specialization

From:
Ulrich Eckhardt <eckhardt@satorlaser.com>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.language
Date:
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:30:55 +0200
Message-ID:
<1ul6v4-m8d.ln1@satorlaser.homedns.org>
Matthias Hofmann wrote:

I am working on a project on Visual C++ 6.0 and I need to port some code
that uses partial specialization of class templates:


My spontaneous response to this is: Forget it and get an at least halfway
modern compiler!

Anyway, let's see...

// Extracts the type of an object.
template <class T>
struct extract { typedef T type; };

// Extracts the type of an array.
template <class T, std::size_t N>
struct extract<T[N]> { typedef T type; };

[...]

// Forwards the call to helper classes.
template <class T> typename extract<T>::type* TrackNew(
    typename extract<T>::type* ptr, const char* file, int line )
{
    return TrackNewHelper<T>::TrackNew( ptr, file, line );
}

#define NEW( T ) TrackNew<T>( new T, __FILE__, __LINE__ )


VC6 (or, rather, MSC12) can't cope with functions overloaded only by their
template parameters or their returntype. Example:

  template<typename R> R get_value() { return R(); }

Normally, you could use it like this:

  int i = get_value<int>();
  double d = get_value<double>();

....which VC6 happily compiles and links, only to either call the int or
double variant at runtime. The other variant is simply not part of the
executable because it is a function with the same name and same parameters.

Now, the workaround for that is:

  #if defined(_MSC_VER) && _MSC_VER<1300
    // workaround for MSC12 not mangling template parameters into
    // generated function symbols
    template<typename R> R get_value( R* dummy=0) { return R(); }
  #else
    template<typename R> R get_value() { return R(); }
  #endif

IOW, you artificially add a parameter to the function that uses the template
parameter, causing the compiler to emit different symbols for different
instantiations.

I hope I understood your problem correctly, the problem is your code
contains too much additional stuff and lacks an error description...

good luck!

Uli

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