Bulldozer00's Blog

Every C++ programmer has experienced at least one, and most probably many, “Template Spew” (TS) moments. You know you’ve triggered a TS moment when, just after hitting the compile button on a program the compiler deems TS-worthy, you helplessly watch an undecipherable avalanche of error messages zoom down your screen at the speed of light. It is rumored that some novices who’ve experienced TS for the very first time have instantaneously entered a permanent catatonic state of unresponsiveness. It’s even said that some poor souls have swan-dived off of bridges to untimely deaths after having seen such carnage.

Note: The graphic image that follows may be highly disturbing. You may want to stop reading this post at this point and continue to waste company time by surfing over to facebook, reddit, etc.

TS occurs when one tries to use a templated class object or function template with a template parameter type that doesn’t provide the behavior “assumed” by the class or function. TS is such a scourge in the C++ world that guru Scott Meyers dedicates a whole item in “Effective STL“, number 49, to handling the trauma associated with deciphering TS gobbledygook.

For those who’ve never seen TS output, here is a woefully contrived example:

The above example doesn’t do justice to the havoc the mighty TS dragon can wreak on the mind because the problem (std::vector<T> requires its template arg to provide a copy assignment function definition) can actually be inferred from a couple of key lines in the sea of TS text.

Ok, enough doom and gloom. Fear not, because help is on the way via C++14 in the form of “concepts lite“. A “concept” is simply a predicate evaluated on a template argument at compile time. If you employ them while writing a template, you inform the compiler of what kind(s) of behavior your template requires from its argument(s). As a use case illustration, behold this slide from Bjarne Stroustrup:

The “concept” being highlighted in this example is “Sortable“. Once the compiler knows that the sort<T> function requires its template argument to be “Sortable“,  it checks that the argument type is indeed sortable. If not, the error message it emits will be something short, sweet, and to the point.

The concept of  “concepts” has a long and sordid history. A lot of work was performed on the feature during the development of the C++11 specification. However, according to Mr. Stroustrup, the result was overly complicated (concept maps, new syntax, scope & lookup issues). Thus, the C++ standards committee decided to controversially sh*tcan the work:

C++11 attempt at concepts: 70 pages of description, 130 concepts – we blew it!

After regrouping and getting their act together, the committee whittled down the number of pages and concepts to something manageable enough (approximately 7 pages and 13 concepts) to introduce into C++14. Hence, the “concepts lite” label. Hopefully, it won’t be long before the TS dragon is relegated back to the dungeon from whence it came.