Casts that makes no sense (!)

Ary Borenszweig ary at esperanto.org.ar
Mon Mar 8 06:38:08 PST 2010


The following compiles:

import std.stdio;

interface I {
}

class A : I {
}

class B {
}

int main() {
   I i = new A();
   A a = cast(A) i;
   B b = cast(B) i; // shouldn't compile
   B c = cast(B) a; // shouldn't compile

   writeln(a);
   writeln(b);
   writeln(c);

   return 0;
}

But two lines there doesn't make sense:

B b = cast(B) i;

An instance of I can never be a B, so why the cast is allowed?

B c = cast(B) a;

An instance of A can never be an A, so why the cast is allowed?

I think these casts should result in an error. This can prevent some bugs.

Java and C# work like that. You can't cast an object of instance of type 
A to type B if both types are classes and B isn't a supertype or subtype 
of A.


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