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D - typesafe cast

reply "Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> writes:
Walter, pleeeease make some sort of cast that'd throw an exception
(preferrabely with file/line info =)) when actual object type doesn't
match the desired. In other words, a usual typecast with implicit
assert. I asked this before, mostly for "theoretical" reasons, but
now it turned out to be quite a practical feature. WinD is just 2500
lines long, and it already has about 15 pieces of code, like this:

    ...
    Control ctl = cast(Control) parent();
    assert(ctl);
    ScreenToClient(ctl.handle(), &pt);
    ...

Variable ctl is used only once. Thus, in such cases, it just clutters
code. It'd look much better if there was a cast throwing exception
on error, for example:

    ...
    ScreenToClient((parent() as Control).handle(), &pt);
    ...

As you can see, my proposal is "<expr> as <type>", but it could be
pretty much anything... another idea:

    cast[type] expr

What do you think of all this?
Feb 17 2002
parent reply Russell Borogove <kaleja estarcion.com> writes:
Pavel Minayev wrote:

 Walter, pleeeease make some sort of cast that'd throw an exception
 (preferrabely with file/line info =)) when actual object type doesn't
 match the desired. In other words, a usual typecast with implicit
 assert. I asked this before, mostly for "theoretical" reasons, but
 now it turned out to be quite a practical feature. WinD is just 2500
 lines long, and it already has about 15 pieces of code, like this:
 
     ...
     Control ctl = cast(Control) parent();
     assert(ctl);
     ScreenToClient(ctl.handle(), &pt);
     ...



I was going to suggest that assert (or something very
like it) evaluate and _return_ its argument/operand in
all build versions, so you could write:

     ScreenToClient( assert( cast( Control ) parent() ), &pt );

It's a little verbose, but not a three-liner this way.
(Does D's assert() test in non-debug versions? The
documentation isn't explicit about it.)

-RB
Feb 17 2002
parent reply "Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> writes:
"Russell Borogove" <kaleja estarcion.com> wrote in message
news:3C6FFA4F.9070702 estarcion.com...


 I was going to suggest that assert (or something very
 like it) evaluate and _return_ its argument/operand in
 all build versions, so you could write:

      ScreenToClient( assert( cast( Control ) parent() ), &pt );

 It's a little verbose, but not a three-liner this way.
 (Does D's assert() test in non-debug versions? The
 documentation isn't explicit about it.)



No, it doesn't (remember the discussion of whether expressions
with side-effects should be forbidden from assert?). It is supposed
to help you debug the program, just like in/out blocks, invariants,
unittests etc... in release they're all stripped (and I believe the
documentation states this quite clearly =)).

Also, this syntax is sooo lengthy... something better to avoid
for a typical operation (and my experience shows that typesafe casting
is frequently used in strongly-typed OOP environment).
Feb 17 2002
parent Russell Borogove <kaleja estarcion.com> writes:
Pavel Minayev wrote:

 "Russell Borogove" <kaleja estarcion.com> wrote in message
 news:3C6FFA4F.9070702 estarcion.com...

It's a little verbose, but not a three-liner this way.
(Does D's assert() test in non-debug versions? The
documentation isn't explicit about it.)



 No, it doesn't (remember the discussion of whether expressions
 with side-effects should be forbidden from assert?). It is supposed
 to help you debug the program, just like in/out blocks, invariants,
 unittests etc... in release they're all stripped (and I believe the
 documentation states this quite clearly =)).



It doesn't state so clearly in the "Contracts" section of
the current spec, but I'll take your word for it.


 Also, this syntax is sooo lengthy... something better to avoid
 for a typical operation (and my experience shows that typesafe casting
 is frequently used in strongly-typed OOP environment).



Agreed.

-RB
Feb 17 2002