auto storage class - infer or RAII?

Chad J gamerChad at _spamIsBad_gmail.com
Sun Nov 12 22:58:21 PST 2006


Walter Bright wrote:
> The auto storage class currently is a little fuzzy in meaning, it can 
> mean "infer the type" and/or "destruct at end of scope". The latter only 
> has meaning for class objects, so let's look at the syntax. There are 4 
> cases:
> 
> class Class { }
> 
> 1) auto c = new Class();
> 2) auto Class c = new Class();
> 3) auto c = some_expression();
> 4) auto Class c = some_expression();
> 
> The ambiguity can be resolved by saying that if auto is used for type 
> inference, i.e. cases (1) and (3), then it does not mean RAII. If it is 
> not used for type inference, i.e. cases (2) and (4), then it does mean 
> RAII.
> 
> In the future, I'd like the following to work:
> 
> 5) auto c = Class();
> 
> which would mean type inference *and* RAII.

I'm going to chime in with the people who don't like (5).  I'd much 
prefer reusing 'scope' or some such.



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