Chromium Code Reviews| Index: base/move.h |
| diff --git a/base/move.h b/base/move.h |
| new file mode 100644 |
| index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..75dca4189608ddd661cc87238c8366748ec43e11 |
| --- /dev/null |
| +++ b/base/move.h |
| @@ -0,0 +1,201 @@ |
| +// Copyright (c) 2012 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved. |
| +// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be |
| +// found in the LICENSE file. |
| + |
| +#ifndef BASE_MOVE_H_ |
| +#define BASE_MOVE_H_ |
| + |
| +// Macro with the boilerplate that makes a type move-only in C++03. |
| +// |
| +// USAGE |
| +// |
| +// This macro should be used instead of DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN to create |
| +// a "move-only" type. Unlike, this macro should be the first line in a |
|
darin (slow to review)
2012/01/19 05:17:30
Unlike [what]?
awong
2012/01/19 20:13:13
Done. (Unlike DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN)
|
| +// class declaration. |
| +// |
| +// A class using this macro must call .Pass() (or somehow be an r-value already) |
| +// before it can be: |
| +// |
| +// * Passed as a function argument |
| +// * Used as the right-hand side of an assignment |
| +// * Return from a function |
| +// |
| +// Each class will still need to define their own "move constructor" and "move |
| +// operator=" to make this useful. Here's an example of both from the |
| +// scoped_ptr class. |
| +// |
| +// scoped_ptr(RValue& other) : ptr_(other.release()) { } |
| +// scoped_ptr& operator=(RValue& other) { |
| +// swap(other); |
| +// return *this; |
| +// } |
| +// |
| +// Note that the constructor must NOT be marked explicit. |
| +// |
| +// |
| +// HOW THIS WORKS |
| +// |
| +// For a thorough explanation of this technique, see: |
| +// |
| +// http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/More_C%2B%2B_Idioms/Move_Constructor |
| +// |
| +// The summary is that we take advantage of 2 properties: |
| +// |
| +// 1) non-const references will not bind to r-values. |
| +// 2) C++ can apply one user-defined conversion when initializing a |
| +// variable. |
| +// |
| +// The first lets us disable the copy constructor and assignment operator |
| +// by declaring private version of them with a non-const reference parameter. |
| +// |
| +// For l-values, direct initialization still fails like in |
| +// DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN because the copy constructor and assignment |
| +// operators are private. |
| +// |
| +// For r-values, the situation is different. The copy constructor and |
| +// assignment operator are not viable due to (1), so we are trying to call |
| +// a non-existent constructor and non-existing operator= rather than a private |
| +// one. Since we have not committed an error quite yet, we can provide an |
| +// alternate conversion sequence and a constructor. We add |
| +// |
| +// * a private struct named "RValue" |
| +// * a user-defined conversion "operator RValue&()" |
| +// * a "move constructor" and "move operator=" that take the RValue& as |
| +// their sole parameter. |
| +// |
| +// Only r-values will trigger this sequence and execute our "move constructor" |
| +// or "move operator=." L-values will match the private copy constructor and |
| +// operator= first giving a "private in this context" error. This combination |
| +// gives us a move-only type. |
| +// |
| +// For signaling a destructive transfer of data from an l-value, we provide a |
| +// method named Pass() which creates an r-value for the current instance |
| +// triggering the move constructor or move operator=. |
| +// |
| +// Other ways to get r-values is to use the result of an expression like a |
| +// function call. |
| +// |
| +// Here's an example with comments explaining what gets triggered where: |
| +// |
| +// class Foo { |
| +// MOVE_ONLY_TYPE_FOR_CPP_03(Foo); |
| +// |
| +// public: |
| +// ... API ... |
| +// Foo(RValue& other); // Move constructor. |
| +// Foo& operator=(RValue& rhs); // Move operator= |
| +// }; |
| +// |
| +// Foo MakeFoo(); // Function that returns a Foo. |
| +// |
| +// Foo f; |
| +// Foo f_copy(f); // ERROR: Foo(Foo&) is private in this context. |
| +// Foo f_assign; |
| +// f_assign = f; // ERROR: operator=(Foo&) is private in this context. |
| +// |
| +// |
| +// Foo f(MakeFoo()); // R-value so alternate conversion executed. |
| +// Foo f_copy(f.Pass()); // R-value so alternate conversion executed. |
| +// f = f_copy.Pass(); // R-value so alternate conversion executed. |
| +// |
| +// |
| +// IMPLEMENTATION SUBTLETIES WITH RValue |
| +// |
| +// The RValue struct has subtle properties: |
| +// |
| +// 1) All its methods are declared, but intentionally not defined. |
| +// 2) It is *never* instantiated. |
| +// 3) It is a child of the move-only type. |
| +// |
| +// (1) is a guard against accidental violation of (2). If an instance of |
| +// RValue were ever created, either as a temporary, or as a copy to some |
| +// function parameter or field of a class, the binary will not link. |
| +// |
| +// This ensures that RValue can only exist as a temporary which is important |
| +// to avoid accidental danging references. |
| +// |
| +// (3) allows us to get around instantiations because our user-defined |
| +// conversion can return a downcast of this pointer. |
| +// |
| +// operator RValue&() { return *reinterpret_cast<RValue*>(this); } |
| +// |
| +// Because RValue does not extend the object size or add any virtual methods, |
| +// this type-pun is safe. |
| +// |
| +// An alternative implementation would be to make RValue into a concrete |
| +// struct that holds a reference to the type. But in the non-optimized build, |
| +// this causes unnecessary temporaries to be made bloating the object files. |
| +// Also, it would then be possible to accidentally persist an RValue instance. |
| +// |
| +// |
| +// COMPARED TO C++11 |
| +// |
| +// In C++11, you would implement this functionality using an r-value reference |
| +// and our .Pass() method would be replaced with a call to std::move(). |
| +// |
| +// This emulation also has a deficiency where it uses up the single |
| +// user-defined conversion allowed by C++ during initialization. This can |
| +// cause problems in some API edge cases. For instance, in scoped_ptr, it is |
| +// impossible to make an function "void Foo(scoped_ptr<Parent> p)" accept a |
|
darin (slow to review)
2012/01/19 05:17:30
this makes me a little sad, but ok :)
awong
2012/01/19 20:13:13
Yes. Makes me sad too.
This stack overflow has a
|
| +// value of type scoped_ptr<Child> even if you add a constructor to |
| +// scoped_ptr<> that would make it look like it should work. C++11 does not |
| +// have this deficiency. |
| +// |
| +// |
| +// COMPARED TO Boost.Move |
| +// |
| +// Our implementation is based on Boost.Move, but we keep the RValue struct |
| +// private to the move-only type. |
| +// |
| +// In Boost.Move, RValue is the boost::rv<> template. This type can be used |
| +// when writing APIs like: |
| +// |
| +// void MyFunc(boost::rv<Foo>& f) |
| +// |
| +// that can take advantage of rv<> to avoid extra copies of a type. However you |
| +// would still be able to call this version of MyFunc with an l-value: |
| +// |
| +// Foo f; |
| +// MyFunc(f); // Uh oh, we probably just destroyed |f| w/o calling Pass(). |
| +// |
| +// unless someone is very careful to also declare a parallel override like: |
| +// |
| +// void MyFunc(const Foo& f) |
| +// |
| +// that would catch the l-values first. This was declared unsafe in C++11 and |
| +// a C++11 compiler will explicitly fail MyFunc(f). Unfortunately, we cannot |
| +// ensure this in C++03. |
| +// |
| +// Since we have no need for writing such APIs yet, our implementation keeps |
| +// RValue private and uses a .Pass() method to do the conversion instead of |
| +// trying to write a version of "std::move()." Writing an API like std::move() |
| +// would require the RValue structs to be public. |
| +// |
| +// |
| +// CAVEATS |
| +// |
| +// If you include a move-only type as a field inside a class that does not |
| +// explicitly declare a copy constructor, the containing class's implicit |
| +// copy constructor will change from Containing(const Containing&) to |
| +// Containing(Containing&). This can cause some unexpected errors. |
| +// |
| +// http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=11528 |
| +// |
| +// The workaround is to explicitly declare your copy constructor. |
| +// |
| +#define MOVE_ONLY_TYPE_FOR_CPP_03(type) \ |
| + private: \ |
| + struct RValue : public type { \ |
| + RValue(); \ |
| + ~RValue(); \ |
| + RValue(const RValue&); \ |
| + void operator=(const RValue&); \ |
| + }; \ |
| + type(type&); \ |
| + void operator=(type&); \ |
| + public: \ |
| + operator RValue&() { return *reinterpret_cast<RValue*>(this); } \ |
| + type Pass() { return type(*reinterpret_cast<RValue*>(this)); } \ |
| + private: |
| + |
| +#endif // BASE_MOVE_H_ |