WIP: [resolveRefs()] Unproxying and evaluation helper for `auto`.
WIP: looks like this MR is being superseded by !345 (merged). Keeping it open for now since most of the discussion is here.
This introduces a helper function that enables auto
type deduction even in
the presence of proxies and pre-C++11 libraries with a tendency to capture
references to temporaries.
Note: the motivating examples below make use of overloads of resolveRefs()
that will be introduced in later commits.
Example 1: deducing the element type of a vector when proxies are a possibility:
template<class Vector>
auto pop_and_clear(Vector &v)
{
auto head = resolveRefs(v[0]);
v.clear();
return head;
}
Without resolveRefs()
this would be undefined behaviour if Vector
happens
to be std::vector<bool>
.
Example 2: a custom number type with lazy evaluation:
template<class MaybeCustomType>
auto f(MaybeCustomType v)
{
return 2 * v - 1;
}
This fails for the custom number type from the automatic differentiation
library Adept, because Adept constructs an expression object that holds
references to its subexpressions and is evaluated only when it is assigned to
a number object later. Due to the use of auto this expression object is
passed out of the function, but the temporary object for the subexpression
2*v
is destroyed when the function returns. Wrapping the expression in the
return
statement with resolveRefs()
ensures that the evaluation happens
while the reference to the subexpression is still valid, and has not ill
effect when fundamental types instead of Adept's custom types are used.