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digitalmars.D.learn - Double-dispatch

reply Sean Eskapp <eatingstaples gmail.com> writes:
I remember in C++, I had to do double-dispatch using the visitor pattern. This
is cumbersome, just because each subclass has to have the exact same
singly-dispatched code that looks like:

void dispatch(Base& other)
{
   other.dispatch(*this);
}

Is there a nicer way to do this in D, or am I stuck with the same thing?
Feb 13 2011
next sibling parent "Simen kjaeraas" <simen.kjaras gmail.com> writes:
Sean Eskapp <eatingstaples gmail.com> wrote:

 I remember in C++, I had to do double-dispatch using the visitor  
 pattern. This
 is cumbersome, just because each subclass has to have the exact same
 singly-dispatched code that looks like:

 void dispatch(Base& other)
 {
    other.dispatch(*this);
 }

 Is there a nicer way to do this in D, or am I stuck with the same thing?
Andrei Alexandrescu (yes, the same one) wrote a generic implementation of multimethods[1] for his book Modern C++ Design[2]. You might want to take a look at that. If you decide to re-implement it in D, it might also be worth incorporating in Phobos. [1]: http://loki-lib.cvs.sourceforge.net/loki-lib/loki/include/loki/MultiMethods.h?view=markup [2]: http://www.amazon.com/a/dp/0201704315/ -- Simen
Feb 13 2011
prev sibling next sibling parent Lutger Blijdestijn <lutger.blijdestijn gmail.com> writes:
Sean Eskapp wrote:

 I remember in C++, I had to do double-dispatch using the visitor pattern.
 This is cumbersome, just because each subclass has to have the exact same
 singly-dispatched code that looks like:
 
 void dispatch(Base& other)
 {
    other.dispatch(*this);
 }
 
 Is there a nicer way to do this in D, or am I stuck with the same thing?
There isn't really, but you can take out some of the boilerplate with a mixin, which goes a long way: // The template parameter Visitor is not actually needed, depending on // what you want to do mixin template Accept(Visitor) { void accept(Visitor v) { v.visit(this); } } class Stuff { mixin Accept!IStuffVisitor; } With some ctfe it's also not too hard to take out the boilerplate of creating the visitor interface with a bit of code generation, though I'm not sure if it's worth it.
Feb 13 2011
prev sibling parent reply bearophile <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> writes:
Sean Eskapp:

 Is there a nicer way to do this in D, or am I stuck with the same thing?
Andrei has recently said no one needs double dispatch (in D) :-) So Andrei will be interested in your use case. Bye, bearophile
Feb 13 2011
parent reply Sean Eskapp <eatingstaples gmail.com> writes:
== Quote from bearophile (bearophileHUGS lycos.com)'s article
 Sean Eskapp:
 Is there a nicer way to do this in D, or am I stuck with the same thing?
Andrei has recently said no one needs double dispatch (in D) :-) So Andrei will
be interested in your use case.
 Bye,
 bearophile
The age-old collision handling problem is how I'm using it.
Feb 13 2011
parent Peter Alexander <peter.alexander.au gmail.com> writes:
On 13/02/11 9:32 PM, Sean Eskapp wrote:
 == Quote from bearophile (bearophileHUGS lycos.com)'s article
 Sean Eskapp:
 Is there a nicer way to do this in D, or am I stuck with the same thing?
Andrei has recently said no one needs double dispatch (in D) :-) So Andrei will
be interested in your use case.
 Bye,
 bearophile
The age-old collision handling problem is how I'm using it.
Use a 2D array of function pointers, with the indices coming from unique IDs on the shapes.
Feb 16 2011