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D - simplifying variants

reply "Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> writes:
Okay, so I just thought and come to the idea that arithmetics
on variants is not really needed, especially if they are
"strict". One could always use typecasting:

    variant a, b, c;
    a = (int)b + (int)c;

Now this means that variant is practically just a union with
a type flag, something like this:

    struct variant
    {
        enum Type { Int, Float, Pointer, String, Object }
        Type type;
        union { int i; float f; void* p; char[] s; Object o; }
    }

There are only two "special" cases that have to be handled by
the compiler. First is typecasting, that should check variant.type
and throw an exception when trying to cast to wrong type, and
the second is that other types (int, extended, void*, char[],
Object - exact list) should be implicitly convertable to
variant. That's pretty much all really needed. Would it be hard
to implement?
Feb 04 2002
next sibling parent "Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> writes:
BTW another idea about unions. Why not make it so that union
is =impicitly= convertable to any of the types it consists
of?

    union intstr { int i; char[] s }
    intstr x;
    ...
    toString(x);    // same as toString(x.s);
    ...
    sin(x);         // same as sin(x.i);

If there are two members of the same type in the union, it
cannot be implicitly casted to that type. If there are two
or more possible casts, explicit typecast is needed:

    union Foo { int* a; float* b; }
    void bar(void*);
    ...
    Foo foo;
    bar(foo);               // invalid
    bar(cast(int*) foo);    // okay
    bar(cast(float*) foo);  // also fine
Feb 04 2002
prev sibling next sibling parent "Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> writes:
"Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> wrote in message
news:a3ms9o$1s2u$1 digitaldaemon.com...


         enum Type { Int, Float, Pointer, String, Object }


It'd better be:

    enum Type { None, Int, Float, Pointer, String, Object }

"None" means that variant is not initialized, and is the
default. Such a variant cannot be casted to any type. Just
a safety feature, much like floats NaN.
Feb 04 2002
prev sibling next sibling parent "Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> writes:
"Pavel Minayev" <evilone omen.ru> wrote in message
news:a3ms9o$1s2u$1 digitaldaemon.com...


         enum Type { Int, Float, Pointer, String, Object }


It'd better be:

    enum Type { None, Int, Float, Pointer, String, Object }

"None" means that variant is not initialized, and is the
default. Such a variant cannot be casted to any type. Just
a safety feature, much like floats NaN.
Feb 04 2002
prev sibling parent Russ Lewis <spamhole-2001-07-16 deming-os.org> writes:
I might (not sure yet) be in favor of a "variant of" syntax:

variantOf[int,bool,Object,Foo] MyFunc();

variantOf[int,bool,Object,Foo] var;
var = MyFunc();


A variantOf[] would be a struct that includes a union of all of the
types along with an enum that tells what type is currently being used.

A variantOf[] could be implicitly cast to any of the underlying types.
However, the compiler would check the enumerator at runtime and if the
type was incorrect, it would throw an exception.

A variantOf[] could be implicitly cast FROM any of the underlying types,
and the compiler would, at runtime, set the enumerator properly.

I understand that this would be a runtime performance hit, and I'm not
sure I like the idea...but it's a possibility.

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Feb 04 2002