www.digitalmars.com         C & C++   DMDScript  

digitalmars.D - D - dynamic_cast only?

reply Steve Teale <steve.teale britseyeview.com> writes:
I'll try again on this.

My reading of the current documentation on casts leaves me with the 
impression that D now has only the equivalent of the C++ dynamic_cast.

This seems unreasonably restrictive given that C++ has traditional C-
style cast, dynamic_cast, static_cast, and reinterpret_cast - or maybe 
it's changed now?

If D is a system programming language should I not be able to tell the 
compiler that a given set of bits represents what I say it is, and suffer 
the consequences if I get things wrong?

Steve
Dec 25 2011
next sibling parent "Vladimir Panteleev" <vladimir thecybershadow.net> writes:
On Sunday, 25 December 2011 at 08:37:21 UTC, Steve Teale wrote:
 I'll try again on this.

 My reading of the current documentation on casts leaves me with 
 the impression that D now has only the equivalent of the C++ 
 dynamic_cast.

 This seems unreasonably restrictive given that C++ has 
 traditional C-
 style cast, dynamic_cast, static_cast, and reinterpret_cast - 
 or maybe it's changed now?

 If D is a system programming language should I not be able to 
 tell the compiler that a given set of bits represents what I 
 say it is, and suffer the consequences if I get things wrong?
The topic regarding confusion caused by having one cast syntax for everything is not new to this group. However, to unconditionally cast any reference type to any reference type, simply cast to void* first to avoid the runtime check.
Dec 25 2011
prev sibling next sibling parent reply bearophile <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> writes:
Steve Teale:

 My reading of the current documentation on casts leaves me with the 
 impression that D now has only the equivalent of the C++ dynamic_cast.
I'd like this in Phobos: http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=5559 Bye, bearophile
Dec 25 2011
parent "Nick Sabalausky" <a a.a> writes:
"bearophile" <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> wrote in message 
news:jd6sbg$qb6$1 digitalmars.com...
 Steve Teale:

 My reading of the current documentation on casts leaves me with the
 impression that D now has only the equivalent of the C++ dynamic_cast.
I'd like this in Phobos: http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=5559
Yea, we need various casts in phobos. It's far too easy to accidentally cast away immutable and const.
Dec 26 2011
prev sibling parent reply Steve Teale <steve.teale britseyeview.com> writes:
On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 08:37:21 +0000, Steve Teale wrote:

So what do you think is happening here?

      ColorSelectionDialog csd = new ColorSelectionDialog("Choose a 
Color");
writefln("csd %s", csd);
void* vp = cast(void*) csd.getColorSelection();
      ColorSelection cs = cast(ColorSelection) vp;
writefln("cs  %s", cs);
      cs.setCurrentColor(cto.baseColor);
writeln("A");

Output:

csd gtk.ColorSelectionDialog.ColorSelectionDialog
cs  gtk.Widget.Widget
Segmentation fault

The segfault is presumably because Widget does not have a setCurrentColor 
method, but why is the cast being ignored? Is the compiler optimizing the 
intermediate cast to void away? I don't find the asm from obj2asm helpful.

Steve
Dec 25 2011
parent reply "Vladimir Panteleev" <vladimir thecybershadow.net> writes:
On Sunday, 25 December 2011 at 13:39:15 UTC, Steve Teale wrote:
 The segfault is presumably because Widget does not have a 
 setCurrentColor method, but why is the cast being ignored? Is 
 the compiler optimizing the intermediate cast to void away? I 
 don't find the asm from obj2asm helpful.
I don't understand. Casting a void* to a class bypasses all static type checks. This is one of those cases where you "tell the compiler that you know what you're doing" - and if you try to call a method that wasn't in the original class's vtable, that's obviously not true.
Dec 25 2011
parent Steve Teale <steve.teale britseyeview.com> writes:
On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:01:31 +0100, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
 
 I don't understand. Casting a void* to a class bypasses all static type
 checks. This is one of those cases where you "tell the compiler that you
 know what you're doing" - and if you try to call a method that wasn't in
 the original class's vtable, that's obviously not true.
Me neither, but it worked before somehow. Anyway, Mike Wey simply fixed gtkD on Christmas day, so now the derived object is handed out instead of the generic Widget.
Dec 25 2011