Autodesk / Autodesk/AutomaticComponentToolkit

Add template classes

Open
#144 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Go
Stars
53
Forks
26
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Currently ACT does not support generic classes (aka template classes) which makes it hard to define certain types such as (type-safe) generic containers and algorithms.

For example, to define types like `Map`, `Map`, and `Map` in the API today, you would need to define the following:

```xml












```

This quickly becomes unmaintainable as for N instantiations you need to:

* Copy-paste and adjust the method definitions N times
* Maintain N implementation classes by:
* Writing the same code N times, or
* Writing a generic `Map` class yourself and inheriting from that N times (something like `class StringBarMap : public Map`)

Instead, ACT could provide support for generic classes, and it could look something like this (following previous discussions with @martinweismann and @alexanderoster):

```xml



























```

The implementation stubs could then be generated as follows:

```c++
// Implementation Stubs
namespace Component { namespace Impl {

template
class CMap
{
public:
virtual void Add(TKey Key, TValue Value);

virtual TValue Get(TKey Key);

virtual void GetOut(TKey Key, TValue *pValue);

virtual void Clear();

virtual Component_uint32 Count();
};

class IntFooMap : public CMap
{
/* instantiates to:
virtual void Add(Component_int32 Key, IFoo * Value);

virtual IFoo * Get(Component_int32 Key);

virtual void GetOut(Component_int32 Key, IFoo **pValue);

virtual void Clear();

virtual Component_uint32 Count();
*/
};

class StringBarMap : public CMap
{
/* instantiates to:
virtual void Add(String * Key, IBar * Value);

virtual IBar * Get(String * Key);

virtual void GetOut(String * Key, IBar **pValue);

virtual void Clear();

virtual Component_uint32 Count();
*/
};

class IntDoubleMap : public CMap
{
/* instantiates to:
virtual void Add(Component_int32 Key, double Value);

virtual double Get(Component_int32 Key);

virtual void GetOut(Component_int32 Key, double *pValue);

virtual void Clear();

virtual Component_uint32 Count();
*/
};

}} // namespace Component::Impl
```

And the bindings:

```c++
// Bindings
namespace Component { namespace Binding {

class CMap
{
public:
virtual void Clear();

virtual Component_uint32 Count();
};

class IntFooMap : public CMap
{
virtual void Add(Component_int32 Key, IFoo * Value);

virtual IFoo * Get(Component_int32 Key);

virtual void GetOut(Component_int32 Key, IFoo **pValue);
};

class StringBarMap : public CMap
{
virtual void Add(String * Key, IBar * Value);

virtual IBar * Get(String * Key);

virtual void GetOut(String * Key, IBar **pValue);
};

class IntDoubleMap : public CMap
{
virtual void Add(Component_int32 Key, double Value);

virtual double Get(Component_int32 Key);

virtual void GetOut(Component_int32 Key, double *pValue);
};

}} // namespace Component::Binding
```

The API author would then only need to implement the template class CMap once.

Notes:
* Only works with strings if they're wrapped in a class
* Already a need for string wrapper class
* Can't support string without wrapper class because of different in/out/return types (`const std::string&` / `std::string &` / `std::string`)
* Template class signatures would differ from the simple / class types, won't work.
* Ref counting, need to check if type is a pointer or not to decide whether or not to call IncRefCount/DecRefCount.
* Provide a helper function with specializations for class / simple types
* Concepts
* Example: key type for map, how to compare?
* `pLhs->Compare(pRhs)`?
* `pLhs < pRhs`?
* Leave it up to the API author, C++ (pre C++20) didn't have support for Concepts either and relied on documentation
* API author can choose to write template functions with specializations like (ACT could document an example)
```c++
template
struct compare_helper {
static int compare(T lhs, T rhs);
};

template
struct compare_helper>>> {
static int compare(Comparable pLhs, Comparable pRhs) {
static_assert(std::is_member_function_pointer::Compare)>::value,
"Type does not implement Comparable concept (Comparable::Compare is not a member function).");
return pLhs->Compare(pRhs);
}
};

template
struct compare_helper>> {
static int compare(Comparable lhs, Comparable rhs) {
return lhs - rhs;
}
};

template
int compare(T lhs, T rhs) {
return compare_helper::compare(lhs,rhs);
}
// compare(pObject1, pObject2) => compiles only if pObject1 has Compare method
// compare(1,2)
```

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Assessment

This issue has not been assessed yet.

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.