This is a follow-up of the Executing tasks based on static polymorphism article, which I recommend to be read for the full picture of what is about to come, as it offers details on why I study this approach and how I implemented it (compile-time iteration of a tuple).
My first attempt on C++ compile-time polymorphism is designed around a task struct. The requirement for a task is to implement an Execute method that will perform some work. This requires that the task struct is mine. Otherwise, if there’s some information provided by another library through some struct, I can wrap it in a task that has the required Execute method.
Inspired by some of Sean Parent’s talks about runtime polymorphism and some of its issues, I found another way of implementing static polymorphism. One that does not have any requirement for the input structs; they don’t need to implement a method nor they must be wrapped in other structs.
Along with the requirements in the previous article, I add these ones:
-
- A container with multiple objects of different types so I have a list of items
- For each object in the container, something different must be performed depending on its type (by iterating all objects, not handling it manually)
- Objects in the container are provided by someone else and cannot be changed
- C++11/14 compatible
This approach starts with some input structs in a tuple (the container); references to the objects constructed of the structs to prevent copies:
namespace input {
struct A {
int a;
};
struct B {
int b;
};
}
using Objects = std::tuple<input::A&, input::A&, input::B&, input::A&>;
Continue reading A more decoupled approach on static polymorphism