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<div class="section" id="technicalities">
<h1>Technicalities</h1>
<div class="contents local topic" id="contents">
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#creating-a-reference-proxy" id="id1">Creating a reference proxy</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="creating-a-reference-proxy">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id1">Creating a reference proxy</a></h2>
<p>Sometimes it is necessary to create a proxy class that represents a
reference to a given object. Examples of these are GIL’s reference to
a planar pixel (<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">planar_pixel_reference</span></code>) and GIL’s sub-byte channel
references. Writing a reference proxy class can be tricky. One problem
is that the proxy reference is constructed as a temporary object and
returned by value upon dereferencing the iterator:</p>
<div class="highlight-cpp"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">struct</span> <span class="n">rgb_planar_pixel_iterator</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">typedef</span> <span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">T</span><span class="o">></span> <span class="n">reference</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">reference</span> <span class="k">operator</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="k">const</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">reference</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">red</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">green</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">blue</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">};</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The problem arises when an iterator is dereferenced directly into a
function that takes a mutable pixel:</p>
<div class="highlight-cpp"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">template</span> <span class="o"><</span><span class="k">typename</span> <span class="n">Pixel</span><span class="o">></span> <span class="c1">// Models MutablePixelConcept</span>
<span class="kt">void</span> <span class="n">invert_pixel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Pixel</span><span class="o">&</span> <span class="n">p</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="n">rgb_planar_pixel_iterator</span> <span class="n">myIt</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">invert_pixel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="n">myIt</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="c1">// compile error!</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>C++ does not allow for matching a temporary object against a non-constant
reference. The solution is to:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Use const qualifier on all members of the reference proxy object:</li>
</ul>
<div class="highlight-cpp"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">template</span> <span class="o"><</span><span class="k">typename</span> <span class="n">T</span><span class="o">></span>
<span class="k">struct</span> <span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">const</span> <span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span><span class="o">&</span> <span class="k">operator</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">const</span> <span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span><span class="o">&</span> <span class="n">p</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">const</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">const</span> <span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span><span class="o">*</span> <span class="k">operator</span><span class="o">-></span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="k">const</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="k">this</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">...</span>
<span class="p">};</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Use different classes to denote mutable and constant reference
(maybe based on the constness of the template parameter)</li>
<li>Define the reference type of your iterator with const qualifier:</li>
</ul>
<div class="highlight-cpp"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">struct</span> <span class="n">iterator_traits</span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">rgb_planar_pixel_iterator</span><span class="o">></span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">typedef</span> <span class="k">const</span> <span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">T</span><span class="o">></span> <span class="n">reference</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">};</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>A second important issue is providing an overload for <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">swap</span></code> for
your reference class. The default <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">std::swap</span></code> will not work
correctly. You must use a real value type as the temporary. A further
complication is that in some implementations of the STL the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">swap</span></code>
function is incorrectly called qualified, as <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">std::swap</span></code>. The only
way for these STL algorithms to use your overload is if you define it
in the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">std</span></code> namespace:</p>
<div class="highlight-cpp"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">namespace</span> <span class="n">std</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">template</span> <span class="o"><</span><span class="k">typename</span> <span class="n">T</span><span class="o">></span>
<span class="kt">void</span> <span class="n">swap</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">T</span><span class="o">>&</span> <span class="n">x</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">my_reference_proxy</span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">T</span><span class="o">>&</span> <span class="n">y</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="n">my_value</span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">T</span><span class="o">></span> <span class="n">tmp</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">y</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">y</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">tmp</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Lastly, remember that constructors and copy-constructors of proxy
references are always shallow and assignment operators are deep.</p>
<p>We are grateful to Dave Abrahams, Sean Parent and Alex Stepanov for
suggesting the above solution.</p>
</div>
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