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- /*!
- @file
- Forward declares `boost::hana::Metafunction`.
- @copyright Louis Dionne 2013-2017
- Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
- (See accompanying file LICENSE.md or copy at http://boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
- */
- #ifndef BOOST_HANA_FWD_CONCEPT_METAFUNCTION_HPP
- #define BOOST_HANA_FWD_CONCEPT_METAFUNCTION_HPP
- #include <boost/hana/config.hpp>
- BOOST_HANA_NAMESPACE_BEGIN
- //! @ingroup group-concepts
- //! @defgroup group-Metafunction Metafunction
- //! A `Metafunction` is a function that takes `hana::type`s as inputs and
- //! returns a `hana::type` as output.
- //!
- //! A `Metafunction` is an object satisfying the [FunctionObject][1]
- //! concept, but with additional requirements. First, it must be possible
- //! to apply a `Metafunction` to arguments whose tag is `type_tag`, and
- //! the result of such an application must be an object whose tag is also
- //! `type_tag`. Note that `hana::type` and `hana::basic_type` are the
- //! only such types.
- //!
- //! Secondly, a `Metafunction` must provide a nested `::%apply` template
- //! which allows performing the same type-level computation as is done by
- //! the call operator. In Boost.MPL parlance, a `Metafunction` `F` is
- //! hence a [MetafunctionClass][2] in addition to being a `FunctionObject`.
- //! Rigorously, the following must be satisfied by any object `f` of type
- //! `F` which is a `Metafunction`, and for arbitrary types `T...`:
- //! @code
- //! f(hana::type_c<T>...) == hana::type_c<F::apply<T...>::type>
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! Thirdly, to ease the inter-operation of values and types,
- //! `Metafunction`s must also allow being called with arguments that
- //! are not `hana::type`s. In that case, the result is equivalent to
- //! calling the metafunction on the types of the arguments. Rigorously,
- //! this means that for arbitrary objects `x...`,
- //! @code
- //! f(x...) == f(hana::type_c<decltype(x)>...)
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //!
- //! Minimal complete definition
- //! ---------------------------
- //! The `Metafunction` concept does not have a minimal complete definition
- //! in terms of tag-dispatched methods. Instead, the syntactic requirements
- //! documented above should be satisfied, and the `Metafunction` struct
- //! should be specialized explicitly in Hana's namespace.
- //!
- //!
- //! Concrete models
- //! ---------------
- //! `hana::metafunction`, `hana::metafunction_class`, `hana::template_`
- //!
- //!
- //! Rationale: Why aren't `Metafunction`s `Comparable`?
- //! ---------------------------------------------------
- //! When seeing `hana::template_`, a question that naturally arises is
- //! whether `Metafunction`s should be made `Comparable`. Indeed, it
- //! would seem to make sense to compare two templates `F` and `G` with
- //! `template_<F> == template_<G>`. However, in the case where `F` and/or
- //! `G` are alias templates, it makes sense to talk about two types of
- //! comparisons. The first one is _shallow_ comparison, and it determines
- //! that two alias templates are equal if they are the same alias
- //! template. The second one is _deep_ comparison, and it determines
- //! that two template aliases are equal if they alias the same type for
- //! any template argument. For example, given `F` and `G` defined as
- //! @code
- //! template <typename T>
- //! using F = void;
- //!
- //! template <typename T>
- //! using G = void;
- //! @endcode
- //!
- //! shallow comparison would determine that `F` and `G` are different
- //! because they are two different template aliases, while deep comparison
- //! would determine that `F` and `G` are equal because they always
- //! expand to the same type, `void`. Unfortunately, deep comparison is
- //! impossible to implement because one would have to check `F` and `G`
- //! on all possible types. On the other hand, shallow comparison is not
- //! satisfactory because `Metafunction`s are nothing but functions on
- //! `type`s, and the equality of two functions is normally defined with
- //! deep comparison. Hence, we adopt a conservative stance and avoid
- //! providing comparison for `Metafunction`s.
- //!
- //! [1]: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/named_req/FunctionObject
- //! [2]: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/release/libs/mpl/doc/refmanual/metafunction-class.html
- template <typename F>
- struct Metafunction;
- BOOST_HANA_NAMESPACE_END
- #endif // !BOOST_HANA_FWD_CONCEPT_METAFUNCTION_HPP
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