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digitalmars.D.learn - Typedef of class doesn't work?

reply Bradley Smith <digitalmars-com baysmith.com> writes:
import std.stdio;

class A {
   this(float v) { value = v; }
   float getValue() { return value; }
	
private:
   float value;
}

typedef A B;

void main() {
   B b = new B(1);
   writefln(b.value);
}

The above code produces the following errors:
dmd testTypedef.d
testTypedef.d(14): Error: cannot implicitly convert expression (new B(1F)) of type testTypedef.A to B testTypedef.d(15): Error: this for value needs to be type A not type B Aliasing works for classes, but not typedef. Why not? Thanks, Bradley
Jan 14 2007
parent Charles D Hixson <charleshixsn earthlink.net> writes:
Bradley Smith wrote:
 
 import std.stdio;
 
 class A {
   this(float v) { value = v; }
   float getValue() { return value; }
     
 private:
   float value;
 }
 
 typedef A B;
 
 void main() {
   B b = new B(1);
   writefln(b.value);
 }
 
 The above code produces the following errors:
  >dmd testTypedef.d
 testTypedef.d(14): Error: cannot implicitly convert expression (new 
 B(1F)) of type testTypedef.A to B
 testTypedef.d(15): Error: this for value needs to be type A not type B
 
 Aliasing works for classes, but not typedef. Why not?
 
 Thanks,
   Bradley
typedef seems broken in a much more general way than that. (Seems, not is.) I don't have a small example but I defined typedef uint NodeNbr; typedef NodeNbr ObjAddr; and then got: charles mandala1:~/projects/D/Parody$ dmd -c db.d db.d(37): constructor node.Node.this (NodeFile,NodeNbr) does not match parameter types (NodeFile,uint) db.d(37): Error: cannot implicitly convert expression (n) of type uint to NodeNbr charles mandala1:~/projects/D/Parody$ dmd -c db.d db.d(37): constructor node.Node.this (NodeFile,NodeNbr) does not match parameter types (NodeFile,NodeNbr) db.d(37): Error: cannot implicitly convert expression (n) of type NodeNbr to NodeNbr charles mandala1:~/projects/D/Parody$ dmd -c db.d db.d(37): constructor node.Node.this (NodeFile,NodeNbr) does not match parameter types (NodeFile,NodeNbr) db.d(37): Error: cannot implicitly convert expression (nd) of type NodeNbr to NodeNbr (Each separate compilation represents a different way of arranging things.) FWIW, they were calling a class defined in another file, and I got around this by using: typedef node.NodeNbr ObjAddr; This does make sense. But the error message is so totally unhelpful that this almost doesn't seem worth the effort. When I used alias instead of typedef it compiled without error. That was the first step in figuring out what the problem was. Better error messages are REALLY needed!
Feb 03 2007