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- <title>Portability Hints: Borland C++ 5.5.1</title>
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- <p>
- <h1>Portability Hints: Borland C++ 5.5.1</h1>
- It is a general aim for boost libraries to be
- <a href="lib_guide.htm#Portability">portable</a>. The primary means
- for achieving this goal is to adhere to ISO Standard C++. However,
- ISO C++ is a broad and complex standard and most compilers are
- not fully conformant to ISO C++ yet. In order to achieve portability
- in the light of this restriction, it seems advisable to get acquainted
- with those language features that some compilers do not fully
- implement yet.
- <p>
- This page gives portability hints on some language features of the
- Borland C++ version 5.5.1 compiler. Furthermore, the appendix
- presents additional problems with Borland C++ version 5.5. Borland
- C++ 5.5.1 is a freely available command-line compiler for Win32
- available at
- <a href="http://www.borland.com/">http://www.borland.com/</a>.
- <p>
- Each entry in the following list describes a particular issue,
- complete with sample source code to demonstrate the effect.
- Most sample code herein has been verified to compile with gcc 2.95.2
- and Comeau C++ 4.2.44.
- <h2>Preprocessor symbol</h2>
- The preprocessor symbol <code>__BORLANDC__</code> is defined for all
- Borland C++ compilers. Its value is the version number of the
- compiler interpreted as a hexadecimal number. The following table
- lists some known values.
- <p>
- <table border="1">
- <tr>
- <th>Compiler</th>
- <th><code>__BORLANDC__</code> value</th>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Borland C++ Builder 4</td>
- <td>0x0540</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Borland C++ Builder 5</td>
- <td>0x0550</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Borland C++ 5.5</td>
- <td>0x0550</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Borland C++ 5.5.1</td>
- <td>0x0551</td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- <h2>Core Language</h2>
- <h3>[using-directive] Mixing <code>using</code>-declarations and
- <code>using</code>-directives</h3>
- Mixing <code>using</code>-directives (which refer to whole namespaces)
- and namespace-level <code>using</code>-declarations (which refer to
- individual identifiers within foreign namespaces) causes ambiguities
- where there are none. The following code fragment illustrates this:
- <pre>
- namespace N {
- int x();
- }
- using N::x;
- using namespace N;
- int main()
- {
- &x; // Ambiguous overload
- }
- </pre>
- <h3>[using template] <code>using</code>-declarations for class
- templates</h3>
- Identifiers for class templates can be used as arguments to
- <code>using</code>-declarations as any other identifier. However, the
- following code fails to compile with Borland C++:
- <pre>
- template<class T>
- class X { };
- namespace N
- {
- // "cannot use template 'X<T>' without specifying specialization parameters"
- using ::X;
- };
- </pre>
- <h3>[template const arg] Deduction of constant arguments to function
- templates</h3>
- Template function type deduction should omit top-level constness.
- However, this code fragment instantiates "f<const int>(int)":
- <pre>
- template<class T>
- void f(T x)
- {
- x = 1; // works
- (void) &x;
- T y = 17;
- y = 20; // "Cannot modify a const object in function f<const int>(int)"
- (void) &y;
- }
- int main()
- {
- const int i = 17;
- f(i);
- }
- </pre>
- The boost/rational.hpp header exhibits this problem in connection with
- the gcd() function.
- <h3>[function address] Resolving addresses of overloaded
- functions</h3>
- Addresses of overloaded functions are not in all contexts properly
- resolved (std:13.4 [over.over]); here is a small example:
- <pre>
- template<class Arg>
- void f( void(*g)(Arg) );
- void h(int);
- void h(double);
- template<class T>
- void h2(T);
- int main()
- {
- void (*p)(int) = h; // this works (std:13.4-1.1)
- void (*p2)(unsigned char) = h2; // this works as well (std:13.4-1.1)
- f<int>(h2); // this also works (std:13.4-1.3)
- // "Cannot generate template specialization from h(int)",
- // "Could not find a match for f<Arg>(void (*)(int))"
- f<double>(h); // should work (std:13.4-1.3)
- f( (void(*)(double))h); // C-style cast works (std:13.4-1.6 with 5.4)
- // "Overloaded 'h' ambiguous in this context"
- f(static_cast<void(*)(double)>(h)); // should work (std:13.4-1.6 with 5.2.9)
- }
- </pre>
- <strong>Workaround:</strong> Always use C-style casts when determining
- addresses of (potentially) overloaded functions.
- <h3>[string conversion] Converting <code>const char *</code> to
- <code>std::string</code></h3>
- Implicitly converting <code>const char *</code> parameters to
- <code>std::string</code> arguments fails if template functions are
- explicitly instantiated (it works in the usual cases, though):
- <pre>
- #include <string>
- template<class T>
- void f(const std::string & s)
- {}
- int main()
- {
- f<double>("hello"); // "Could not find a match for f<T>(char *)"
- }
- </pre>
- <strong>Workaround:</strong> Avoid explicit template function
- instantiations (they have significant problems with Microsoft Visual
- C++) and pass default-constructed unused dummy arguments with the
- appropriate type. Alternatively, if you wish to keep to the explicit
- instantiation, you could use an explicit conversion to
- <code>std::string</code> or declare the template function as taking a
- <code>const char *</code> parameter.
- <h3>[template value defaults] Dependent default arguments for template
- value parameters</h3>
- Template value parameters which default to an expression dependent on
- previous template parameters don't work:
- <pre>
- template<class T>
- struct A
- {
- static const bool value = true;
- };
- // "Templates must be classes or functions", "Declaration syntax error"
- template<class T, bool v = A<T>::value>
- struct B {};
- int main()
- {
- B<int> x;
- }
- </pre>
- <strong>Workaround:</strong> If the relevant non-type template
- parameter is an implementation detail, use inheritance and a fully
- qualified identifier (for example, ::N::A<T>::value).
- <h3>[function partial ordering] Partial ordering of function
- templates</h3>
- Partial ordering of function templates, as described in std:14.5.5.2
- [temp.func.order], does not work:
- <pre>
- #include <iostream>
- template<class T> struct A {};
- template<class T1>
- void f(const A<T1> &)
- {
- std::cout << "f(const A<T1>&)\n";
- }
- template<class T>
- void f(T)
- {
- std::cout << "f(T)\n";
- }
- int main()
- {
- A<double> a;
- f(a); // output: f(T) (wrong)
- f(1); // output: f(T) (correct)
- }
- </pre>
- <strong>Workaround:</strong> Declare all such functions uniformly as
- either taking a value or a reference parameter.
- <h2>Library</h2>
- <h3>[cmath.abs] Function <code>double std::abs(double)</code>
- missing</h3>
- The function <code>double std::abs(double)</code> should be defined
- (std:26.5-5 [lib.c.math]), but it is not:
- <pre>
- #include <cmath>
- int main()
- {
- double (*p)(double) = std::abs; // error
- }
- </pre>
- Note that <code>int std::abs(int)</code> will be used without warning
- if you write <code>std::abs(5.1)</code>.
- <p>
- Similar remarks apply to seemingly all of the other standard math
- functions, where Borland C++ fails to provide <code>float</code> and
- <code>long double</code> overloads.
- <p>
- <strong>Workaround:</strong> Use <code>std::fabs</code> instead if
- type genericity is not required.
- <h2>Appendix: Additional issues with Borland C++ version 5.5</h2>
- These issues are documented mainly for historic reasons. If you are
- still using Borland C++ version 5.5, you are strongly encouraged to
- obtain an upgrade to version 5.5.1, which fixes the issues described
- in this section.
- <h3>[inline friend] Inline friend functions in template classes</h3>
- If a friend function of some class has not been declared before the
- friend function declaration, the function is declared at the namespace
- scope surrounding the class definition. Together with class templates
- and inline definitions of friend functions, the code in the following
- fragment should declare (and define) a non-template function "bool
- N::f(int,int)", which is a friend of class N::A<int>. However,
- Borland C++ v5.5 expects the function f to be declared beforehand:
- <pre>
- namespace N {
- template<class T>
- class A
- {
- // "f is not a member of 'N' in function main()"
- friend bool f(T x, T y) { return x < y; }
- };
- }
- int main()
- {
- N::A<int> a;
- }
- </pre>
- This technique is extensively used in boost/operators.hpp. Giving in
- to the wish of the compiler doesn't work in this case, because then
- the "instantiate one template, get lots of helper functions at
- namespace scope" approach doesn't work anymore. Defining
- BOOST_NO_OPERATORS_IN_NAMESPACE (a define
- BOOST_NO_INLINE_FRIENDS_IN_CLASS_TEMPLATES would match this case
- better) works around this problem and leads to another one, see
- [using-template].
- <p>
- <hr>
- 2000-09-30 <a href="../people/jens_maurer.htm">Jens Maurer</a>
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