New library: rebindable, create a type that can stand in for any other type, but mutable (and without destructor)

FeepingCreature feepingcreature at gmail.com
Wed Sep 29 10:22:40 UTC 2021


Or: Turducken 2.0 The Reckoning

https://code.dlang.org/packages/rebindable 
https://github.com/FeepingCreature/rebindable

Rebindable offers a proxy type, `rebindable.DeepUnqual` 
(`DeepUnqual!T`) that can "stand in" for `T` in layout, but does 
not share `T`'s constructor, destructor, copy constructor, 
invariants or constness.

It's effectively "`std.typecons.Rebindable` for structs (and 
everything else)".

This proxy type is useful when implementing data structures where 
the lifetime of a contained value is different from the lifetime 
of the data structure itself.

This project sprang from my thread over in general, 
https://forum.dlang.org/thread/kkefkykirldffkdoqdwj@forum.dlang.org "Will D always have a way to rebind an arbitrary data type?"

To my knowledge, rebindable exploits no compiler bugs and invokes 
no undefined behavior. All casts are such that pointer fields are 
matched with pointer fields (or void[]) at the same offset. It is 
also totally independent of the vagaries of Phobos functions like 
`moveEmplace`, which Turducken used.

Of course, you must still make sure that mutable fields in 
`DeepUnqual!T` are never exposed as immutable. You can do this by 
only returning `T` by value.

See also: Turducken Type Technique 
https://forum.dlang.org/thread/ekbxqxhnttihkoszzvxl@forum.dlang.org


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