• Russ Lewis (26/26) Feb 27 2004 IMHO, a delegate or function should be implicitly castable to another
• Matthew (3/29) Feb 27 2004 No, but it should be explicitly castable. I presume it is already ...
• Ben Hinkle (24/24) Feb 27 2004 "Russ Lewis" wrote in message
• Russ Lewis (6/35) Mar 02 2004 You're right. We should add the additional requirement that you can

Russ Lewis <spamhole-2001-07-16 deming-os.org> writes:

IMHO, a delegate or function should be implicitly castable to another 
function pointer or delegate type if the types would also allow implicit 
casting.  More formally:

	A0 delegate(A1, A2, A3, ... , An)
should be implicitly castable to
	B0 delegate(B1, B2, B3, ... , Bn)
if and only if the following conditions are met:
1) A0 is implicitly castable to B0
2) For all i, Bi is implicitly castable to Ai.
Note that in (2), the direction of casting is reversed.



Here's a practical example:

class Base {};
class Child : Base {};
void myFunc(Base b) {};
int main() {
	void function(Child) foo = &myFunc;
	return 0;
}

The compiler currently chokes on the assignment.  However, the 
assignment that makes sense.  We have a function that requires that its 
argument be a Base, or child of Base.  We have a function pointer which, 
when it is called, must be called with something that is (at least) a
Child.  Thus, any time that the function pointer is called, we know that 
myFunc will be getting a child of Base.

Thus, from my view, the implicit cast should be legal.

Thoughts?

"Matthew" <matthew.hat stlsoft.dot.org> writes:

No, but it should be explicitly castable. I presume it is already ...

"Russ Lewis" <spamhole-2001-07-16 deming-os.org> wrote in message
news:c1og80$dff$1 digitaldaemon.com...
 IMHO, a delegate or function should be implicitly castable to another
 function pointer or delegate type if the types would also allow implicit
 casting.  More formally:

 A0 delegate(A1, A2, A3, ... , An)
 should be implicitly castable to
 B0 delegate(B1, B2, B3, ... , Bn)
 if and only if the following conditions are met:
 1) A0 is implicitly castable to B0
 2) For all i, Bi is implicitly castable to Ai.
 Note that in (2), the direction of casting is reversed.



 Here's a practical example:

 class Base {};
 class Child : Base {};
 void myFunc(Base b) {};
 int main() {
 void function(Child) foo = &myFunc;
 return 0;
 }

 The compiler currently chokes on the assignment.  However, the
 assignment that makes sense.  We have a function that requires that its
 argument be a Base, or child of Base.  We have a function pointer which,
 when it is called, must be called with something that is (at least) a
 Child.  Thus, any time that the function pointer is called, we know that
 myFunc will be getting a child of Base.

 Thus, from my view, the implicit cast should be legal.

 Thoughts?

"Ben Hinkle" <bhinkle4 juno.com> writes:

"Russ Lewis" <spamhole-2001-07-16 deming-os.org> wrote in message
news:c1og80$dff$1 digitaldaemon.com...
| IMHO, a delegate or function should be implicitly castable to another
| function pointer or delegate type if the types would also allow implicit
| casting.  More formally:
|
| A0 delegate(A1, A2, A3, ... , An)
| should be implicitly castable to
| B0 delegate(B1, B2, B3, ... , Bn)
| if and only if the following conditions are met:
| 1) A0 is implicitly castable to B0
| 2) For all i, Bi is implicitly castable to Ai.
| Note that in (2), the direction of casting is reversed.

There is a problem when the implicit cast changes the size
of the data. For example, if a variable is declared
 void delegate(int)
then to call the delegate D pushes an int onto the stack
and calls. If the function it calls is declared to take a
byte then it will look on the stack at the wrong place.
Matching up with your proposal it would be
 A0 = void, A1 = int, B0 = void, B1 = byte

This makes me lean towards forcing the cast to be
explicit.

-Ben

Russ Lewis <spamhole-2001-07-16 deming-os.org> writes:

You're right.  We should add the additional requirement that you can 
only implicitly cast if the types have the same .size.

What I'm most interested in is the base class/derived class example I 
posted.  Everything else is just gravy :)

Russ

Ben Hinkle wrote:
 "Russ Lewis" <spamhole-2001-07-16 deming-os.org> wrote in message
 news:c1og80$dff$1 digitaldaemon.com...
 | IMHO, a delegate or function should be implicitly castable to another
 | function pointer or delegate type if the types would also allow implicit
 | casting.  More formally:
 |
 | A0 delegate(A1, A2, A3, ... , An)
 | should be implicitly castable to
 | B0 delegate(B1, B2, B3, ... , Bn)
 | if and only if the following conditions are met:
 | 1) A0 is implicitly castable to B0
 | 2) For all i, Bi is implicitly castable to Ai.
 | Note that in (2), the direction of casting is reversed.
 
 There is a problem when the implicit cast changes the size
 of the data. For example, if a variable is declared
  void delegate(int)
 then to call the delegate D pushes an int onto the stack
 and calls. If the function it calls is declared to take a
 byte then it will look on the stack at the wrong place.
 Matching up with your proposal it would be
  A0 = void, A1 = int, B0 = void, B1 = byte
 
 This makes me lean towards forcing the cast to be
 explicit.
 
 -Ben