Eugene Wee wrote:

One way to do this is to simply define new types instead of using typedef to create different aliases for the same type.

Do you mean like this? struct ConfigName { ConfigName(std::string const& value_) : value(value_) {} std::string value; }; struct PathName { PathName(std::string const& value_) : value(value_) {} std::string value; }; If so, I'm trying to cut down on code duplication and have a standard way of accessing my parameter values. By created each parameter value separately there is nothing that forces the programmer to have consistent interface to access the value. Ryan

Roman Perepelitsa wrote:

template struct ParameterValue { ParameterValue(S value_) : value(value_) {} S value };

typedef ParameterValue ConfigName; typedef ParameterValue PathName;

Roman Perepelitsa.

Is is possible to have the number be generated automatically so that it doesn't need to be defined by the user? Ryan

Quoting Roman Perepelitsa :

2009/5/6 Ryan McConnehey

...

Roman Perepelitsa wrote:

template struct ParameterValue { ParameterValue(S value_) : value(value_) {} S value };

typedef ParameterValue ConfigName; typedef ParameterValue PathName;

Roman Perepelitsa.

Is is possible to have the number be generated automatically so that it doesn't need to be defined by the user?

I don't think so. If you want to protect yourself from accidentally using the same number with different types, you can try the following: [...]

In addition to tagging, you can also look into whether true_typedef is suitable. Matthew Wilson's STLSoft has an implementation. There is also a strong_typedef in Boost but I think it should be regarded as implementation detail of the serialization library and thus comes with caveats.

Peter Bartlett wrote:

In addition to tagging, you can also look into whether true_typedef is suitable. Matthew Wilson's STLSoft has an implementation.

true_typedef seems like a really good choice. I'm unclear what the STLSOFT_GEN_OPAQUE macro really provides. The macro is defined as follows. #define STLSOFT_GEN_OPAQUE (type) typedef struct __stlsoft_htype##type{ int i; } const* type; So to use the STLSoft version I have to use the macro and then provide the typedef. It would look like this. STLSOFT_GEN_OPAQUE (ConfigName_u) typedef stlsoft::true_typedef ConfigName; How is this better than just declaring a struct in the typedef itself. It would look like this. typedef stlsoft::true_typedef ConfigName; What does having a pointer to a struct provide that a normal struct doesn't? Ryan