[boost] [property] interest in C# like properties for C++?

19 Oct 2009

      I have implemented a prototype support for properties in C++.
It has no space overhead as it manages to deduce the this pointer of the
class owning it.

Code sample:

#include <boost/static_assert.hpp>
#include <boost/property.hpp>
#include <iostream>

class class_with_property {
public:
     //Implement property template
     template<typename Base>
     class property_with_a_sensible_name : public Base
     {
     public:
        void set(const double& a) {
           //Implement setting of the variable here.
           m_var=a;
           //You can access the owner of the property's this value by
calling self(), e.g.
           self()->refresh();
        }
        const double& get() const {
           return m_var;
        }
     private:
        double m_var;
     };
     void refresh() {
        std::cout << "Refreshed";
     }
     //Instantiate property template. These can be reused.

 BOOST_PROPERTY(class_with_property,property_with_a_sensible_name,property_name);
};

//And usage:
void test() {
     class_with_property cls;
     cls.property_name=54.3;
     BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(sizeof(class_with_property)==sizeof(double));
}

The trick used is the following:

class my_class {
public:
  class property_x {
  public:
     my_class* self() {
        //Find offset of member relative to my_class
        size_t offset=size_t(&((my_class*)0)->x);
        //Use this to deduce the address of my_class
        return reinterpret_cast<my_class*>(size_t(this)-offset);
     }
  };
  property_x x;
};

It currently support:
Read/Write properties
Read properties
Write properties

Not supported yet:
indexed properties
operator overloads for properties, e.g. my_class.property*my_class.property
will currently fail.

Regards
Peder

[boost] [property] interest in C# like properties for C++?

Peder Holt