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<a name="C_002b_002b-Interface-Limitations"></a>
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<hr>
<a name="C_002b_002b-Interface-Limitations-1"></a>
<h3 class="section">12.6 C++ Interface Limitations</h3>
<dl compact="compact">
<dt><code>mpq_class</code> and Templated Reading</dt>
<dd><p>A generic piece of template code probably won&rsquo;t know that <code>mpq_class</code>
requires a <code>canonicalize</code> call if inputs read with <code>operator&gt;&gt;</code>
might be non-canonical. This can lead to incorrect results.
</p>
<p><code>operator&gt;&gt;</code> behaves as it does for reasons of efficiency. A
canonicalize can be quite time consuming on large operands, and is best
avoided if it&rsquo;s not necessary.
</p>
<p>But this potential difficulty reduces the usefulness of <code>mpq_class</code>.
Perhaps a mechanism to tell <code>operator&gt;&gt;</code> what to do will be adopted in
the future, maybe a preprocessor define, a global flag, or an <code>ios</code> flag
pressed into service. Or maybe, at the risk of inconsistency, the
<code>mpq_class</code> <code>operator&gt;&gt;</code> could canonicalize and leave <code>mpq_t</code>
<code>operator&gt;&gt;</code> not doing so, for use on those occasions when that&rsquo;s
acceptable. Send feedback or alternate ideas to <a href="mailto:gmp-bugs@gmplib.org">gmp-bugs@gmplib.org</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>Subclassing</dt>
<dd><p>Subclassing the GMP C++ classes works, but is not currently recommended.
</p>
<p>Expressions involving subclasses resolve correctly (or seem to), but in normal
C++ fashion the subclass doesn&rsquo;t inherit constructors and assignments.
There&rsquo;s many of those in the GMP classes, and a good way to reestablish them
in a subclass is not yet provided.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>Templated Expressions</dt>
<dd><p>A subtle difficulty exists when using expressions together with
application-defined template functions. Consider the following, with <code>T</code>
intended to be some numeric type,
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">template &lt;class T&gt;
T fun (const T &amp;, const T &amp;);
</pre></div>
<p>When used with, say, plain <code>mpz_class</code> variables, it works fine: <code>T</code>
is resolved as <code>mpz_class</code>.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">mpz_class f(1), g(2);
fun (f, g); // Good
</pre></div>
<p>But when one of the arguments is an expression, it doesn&rsquo;t work.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">mpz_class f(1), g(2), h(3);
fun (f, g+h); // Bad
</pre></div>
<p>This is because <code>g+h</code> ends up being a certain expression template type
internal to <code>gmpxx.h</code>, which the C++ template resolution rules are unable
to automatically convert to <code>mpz_class</code>. The workaround is simply to add
an explicit cast.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">mpz_class f(1), g(2), h(3);
fun (f, mpz_class(g+h)); // Good
</pre></div>
<p>Similarly, within <code>fun</code> it may be necessary to cast an expression to type
<code>T</code> when calling a templated <code>fun2</code>.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">template &lt;class T&gt;
void fun (T f, T g)
{
fun2 (f, f+g); // Bad
}
template &lt;class T&gt;
void fun (T f, T g)
{
fun2 (f, T(f+g)); // Good
}
</pre></div>
</dd>
<dt>C++11</dt>
<dd><p>C++11 provides several new ways in which types can be inferred: <code>auto</code>,
<code>decltype</code>, etc. While they can be very convenient, they don&rsquo;t mix well
with expression templates. In this example, the addition is performed twice,
as if we had defined <code>sum</code> as a macro.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">mpz_class z = 33;
auto sum = z + z;
mpz_class prod = sum * sum;
</pre></div>
<p>This other example may crash, though some compilers might make it look like
it is working, because the expression <code>z+z</code> goes out of scope before it
is evaluated.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">mpz_class z = 33;
auto sum = z + z + z;
mpz_class prod = sum * 2;
</pre></div>
<p>It is thus strongly recommended to avoid <code>auto</code> anywhere a GMP C++
expression may appear.
</p></dd>
</dl>
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