doc/named-param.dox
author athos
Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:41:53 +0000
changeset 2228 f71b0f9a7c3a
parent 1713 49d22d34d95f
child 2391 14a343be7a5a
permissions -rw-r--r--
Improved documentation.
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/*!
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\page named-param Named Parameters
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\section named-func-param Named Function Parameters
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C++ makes it possible to use default parameter values when calling a
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function. In such a case we do not have to give value for parameters,
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the program will use the default ones.  Unfortunately sometimes this
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is not enough. If we do not want to give values for all the
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parameters, only for some of them we come across problems, because an
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arbitrary set of parameters cannot be omitted. On the other hand
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parameters have a fixed order in the head of the function.  C++ can
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apply the default values only in the back of the order, if we do not
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give other value for them.  So we can not give the function for
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example the value of the first, and the third parameter, expecting
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that the program will aplly the default value for the second
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parameter.  However sometimes we would like to use some functinos
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exactly in this way. With a crafty trick and with some little
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inconvenience this is possible. We have implemented this little trick
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as an example below.
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\code
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class namedFn 
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{
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  int _id;
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  double _val;
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  int _dim;
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  public:
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  namedFn() : _id(0), _val(1), _dim(2) {}
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  namedFn& id(int p)     { _id  = p ; return *this; }
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  namedFn& val(double p) { _val = p ; return *this; }
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  namedFn& dim(int p)    { _dim = p ; return *this; }
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  run() {
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    printf("Here is the function itself.");
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  }
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};
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\endcode
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The usage is the following.
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We have to define a class, let's call it \c namedFn.  Let us assume that
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we would like to use a parameter, called \c X. In the \c namedFn class we
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have to define an \c _X attribute, and a function \c X. The function
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expects a parameter with the type of \c _X, and sets the value of
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\c _X. After setting the value the function returns the class itself. The
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class also have to have a function, called for example <tt>run()</tt>, we have
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to implement here the original function itself. The constructor of the
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class have to give all the attributes like \c _X the default values of
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them.
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If we instantiate this class, the default values will be set for the
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attributes (originally the parameters), initially. If we call function
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\c X, we get a class with the modified parameter value of
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\c X. Therefore we can modify any parameter-value, independently from the
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order. To run the algorithm we have to call the <tt>run()</tt> function at the
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end of the row.
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Example:
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\code
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namedFn().id(3).val(2).run();
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\endcode
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\note Although it is a class, namedFn is used pretty much like as it were
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a function. That it why it is called namedFn and not \c NamedFn.
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\note In fact, the final <tt>.run()</tt> could be made unnecessary if the
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actual function code were put in the destructor instead. This however would make
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hard to implement functions with return values, and would also make the
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implementation of \ref named-templ-func-param "named template parameters"
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very problematic. <b>Therefore, by convention, <tt>.run()</tt> must be used
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to explicitly execute function having named parameters in Lemon.</b>
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\section traits-classes Traits Classes
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The procedure above can also be applied when defining classes. In this
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case the type of the attributes can be changed.  Initially we have to
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define a class with the default attribute types. This is the so called
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Traits Class. Later on the types of these attributes can be changed,
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as described below. In our software \ref lemon::DijkstraDefaultTraits is an
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example of how a traits class looks like.
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\section named-templ-param Named Class Template Parameters
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If we would like to change the type of an attribute in a class that
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was instantiated by using a traits class as a template parameter, and
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the class contains named parameters, we do not have to reinstantiate
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the class with new traits class. Instead of that, adaptor classes can
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be used like in the following cases.
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\code
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Dijkstra<>::SetPredNodeMap<NullMap<Node,Node> >::Create
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\endcode
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It can also be used in conjunction with other named template
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parameters in arbitrary order.
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\code
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Dijkstra<>::SetDistMap<MyMap>::SetPredMap<NullMap<Node,Edge> >::Create
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\endcode
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The result will be an instantiated Dijkstra class, in which the
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DistMap and the PredMap is modified.
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\section named-templ-func-param Named Function Template Parameters
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If the class has so called wizard functions, the new class with the
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modified tpye of attributes can be returned by the appropriate wizard
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function. The usage of these wizard functions is the following:
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*/