Generic Tools in TnFOX
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Detailed Description
I failed a job interview at Trolltech for not knowing anything about compile-time introspection in C++, so you can bet your arse it was the first thing I set about fixing. And within a few hours of surfing the web and reading about it, I was hooked!What I think especially impressed me was Andrei Alexandrescu's article on improving copies. I like most programmers had thought this was a done deal and we'd got as good as we got - but as I'm really an assembler programmer at heart, I knew C++ was very suboptimal especially with regard to temporaries. From that point onwards I resolved to learn this skill.
The generic tools provided by FXGenericTools.h provide the following facilities:
- Do/Undo, whereby arbitrary functions can be called on entry and exit of a scope
- A number of simple compile-time metalanguage constructs such as if, equals, true, false, is convertible etc.
- An enhanced type information container which works across shared object boundaries on GCC and provides portable symbol demangling
- A policy-based smart pointer
- Typelists with simple operations like append, find, remove etc. plus more complex operations like instantiate via third-party template
- Extensive type traits, including user-definable ones
- Function & member function traits
- Generic functors, bound functors plus helper functions to create bindings
Caveats:
Unfortunately, these come with a price - you will need a compiler supporting partial template specialisation plus Koenig lookup. That means MSVC7.1 or higher and GCC v3.4 or higher - with other compilers, your milage may vary. I've heard Intel's C++ compiler v7.x works fine too. If your compiler is not up to scratch, I did design the generic tools to be redirectable to a much more comprehensive library eg; Boost (http://www.boost.org/).
Speaking of Boost, TnFOX's compile-time metaprogramming tools are only fairly comprehensive. I've aimed merely to provide the most common and useful facilities which can do 95% of day to day stuff. If you want to do anything more complicated than this, I strongly recommend Boost which should be able to convert TnFOX's typelists to its own pretty easily.
For lots more on compile-time metaprogramming (especially if you want to learn it), please consult the book "Modern C++ Design" by Andrei Alexandrescu.
Namespaces | |
| namespace | Generic |
Modules | |
| Typelists | |
| Class Traits | |
Classes | |
| struct | FX::Generic::NullType |
| A type representing no type (ie; end of list etc). More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::IntToType< n > |
A small template which maps any int to a type (and thus allows number-based overloading and type specialisation - and thus compile-time determined code generation). More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::TypeToType< type > |
| A small template which maps any type to a lightweight type suitable for overloading eg; functions. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::Boolean< v, type > |
| A small template whose value is v. Useful for delayed static assertions. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::select< v, A, B > |
| Selects one of two types based upon a boolean. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::sameType< A, B > |
| Returns true if the two types are the same. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::addRef< type > |
| Adds a reference indirection unless type already has one. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::addConstRef< type > |
| Ensures a type is a const reference. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::convertible< to, from > |
| Returns true if from can become to. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::lessIndir< ptr > |
| Removes if possible a level of indirection from a pointer or reference type. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::indirs< type > |
| Returns how many levels of indirection this type has eg; int ** is two. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::leastIndir< ptr > |
| Removes all levels of indirection from a pointer or reference type. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::typeInfo< type > |
| Enhanced version of std::type_info. More... | |
| class | FX::Generic::ptr< type, ownershipPolicy > |
| A policy-based smart pointer. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::FnInfo< fn > |
| Extracts type information from a function pointer type. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::FnFromList< list > |
| Converts a typelist into a function pointer type. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::IntegralLists |
| A series of typelists of kinds of integral type. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::BiggestValue< type, minus > |
| Returns the biggest positive or negative value which can be stored in an integral type. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::SmallestValue< type, minus > |
| Returns the smallest positive or negative value which can be stored in an integral type. More... | |
| class | FX::Generic::Traits< type > |
| Determines qualities of a type via introspection. More... | |
| class | FX::Generic::Functor< parslist > |
| Represents a callable API. More... | |
| class | FX::Generic::BoundFunctorV |
| A call to a specific API with specific arguments, throwing away the return. More... | |
| class | FX::Generic::BoundFunctor< parslist > |
| A call to a specific API with specific arguments. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::MapBools< len > |
| Mapper of C++ bools to a bitfield. More... | |
| class | FX::Generic::DoUndo< obj, doaddr, undoaddr > |
| Performs an action on construction and another action on destruction. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::hasSerialise< type > |
Determines if a FXStream operator<< exists for the specified type. More... | |
| struct | FX::Generic::hasDeserialise< type > |
Determines if a FXStream operator>> exists for the specified type. More... | |
Defines | |
| #define | FXSTATIC_ASSERT(expr, msg) |
Functions | |
| BoundFunctor | FX::Generic::BindFunctor (FX::Generic::Functor &functor[, par1[, par2...]]) |
| BoundFunctor * | FX::Generic::BindFunctorN (FX::Generic::Functor &functor[, par1[, par2...]]) |
| BoundFunctor | FX::Generic::BindFunc (functptr[, par1[, par2...]]) |
| BoundFunctor | FX::Generic::BindFuncN (functptr[, par1[, par2...]]) |
| BoundFunctor | FX::Generic::BindObj (obj &, memfunctptr[, par1[, par2...]]) |
| BoundFunctor | FX::Generic::BindObjN (obj &, memfunctptr[, par1[, par2...]]) |
Define Documentation
| #define FXSTATIC_ASSERT | ( | expr, | |||
| msg | ) |
A macro which provides compile-time assertion tests, causing the compiler to issue a useful message msg if the assertion fails. The message must be a legal C++ identifier though it can start with a number. You also must place it somewhere where code can be compiled as it relies on a scope to remove a temporarily created variable (which is optimised away on release builds). If you want it without the scope (eg; as a member variable) use FXSTATIC_ASSERT2().
On C++0x compilers, this uses the new static_assert() feature.
Referenced by FX::FXIPCChannel::invokeMsgHandler(), FX::FXIPCChannelIndirector::sendMsg(), FX::FXIPCChannel::sendMsg(), and FX::TnFXSQLDB::toSQL92Type().
Function Documentation
| BoundFunctor FX::Generic::BindFunctor | ( | FX::Generic::Functor &functor] | [, par1[, par2...] | ) |
Binds a functor to a set of parameters and returns the binding
| BoundFunctor* FX::Generic::BindFunctorN | ( | FX::Generic::Functor &functor] | [, par1[, par2...] | ) |
Binds a functor to a set of parameters and returns the binding as a newed pointer
| BoundFunctor FX::Generic::BindFunc | ( | functptr] | [, par1[, par2...] | ) |
Binds a function to a set of parameters and returns the binding
| BoundFunctor FX::Generic::BindFuncN | ( | functptr] | [, par1[, par2...] | ) |
Binds a function to a set of parameters and returns the binding as a newed pointer
| BoundFunctor FX::Generic::BindObj | ( | obj & | , | |
| memfunctptr] | [, par1[, par2...] | |||
| ) |
Binds a member function of a specific object to a set of parameters and returns the binding
| BoundFunctor FX::Generic::BindObjN | ( | obj & | , | |
| memfunctptr] | [, par1[, par2...] | |||
| ) |
Binds a member function of a specific object to a set of parameters and returns the binding as a newed pointer
