Newbie: copy, assignment of class instances

[bearophile]

Larry Luther:

>Ok, I've added -w to compilation commands and I've switched back to pure text.<

Good :-)


>What am I missing?<

I have modified a bit your D code like this, to have something with a main() that runs:


import std.c.stdio: puts;

class A {
    int x, y;

    void copy(const A a) {
        puts("A copy");
        x = a.x;
        y = a.y;
    }
}

class B : A {
    int z;

    void copy(const B b) {
        puts("B copy");
        super.copy(b);
        z = b.z;
    }
}

void main() {
    A a1 = new A;
    A a2 = new A;

    B b1 = new B;
    B b2 = new B;

    a1.copy(a2); // should execute A.copy
    a1.copy(b1); // should execute A.copy
    b1.copy(b2); // should execute B.copy
    b1.copy(a1); // should execute A.copy
}



I have also translated your the code to Java, because sometimes Java designers are more "correct" thant D designers:


class A {
    int x, y;

    void mycopy(A a) {
        System.out.println("A mycopy");
        x = a.x;
        y = a.y;
    }
}

class B extends A {
    int z;

    void mycopy(B b) {
        System.out.println("B mycopy");
        super.mycopy(b);
        z = b.z;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        A a1 = new A();
        A a2 = new A();

        B b1 = new B();
        B b2 = new B();

        a1.mycopy(a2); // should execute A.mycopy
        a1.mycopy(b1); // should execute A.mycopy
        b1.mycopy(b2); // should execute B.mycopy
        b1.mycopy(a1); // should execute A.mycopy
    }
}


The Java code compiles and runs with no errors, and prints:
A mycopy
A mycopy
B mycopy
A mycopy
A mycopy


But the D version is different. It seems you have found a small difference between Java and D that I didn't know about.

If I comment out the last line of the main() in the D code (b1.copy(a1);) and I compile the D code with -w it generates the warning I was talking about:

test.d(13): Error: class test.B test.A.copy(const const(A) a) is hidden by B


If I leave that line uncommented then the compilation stops with a different error:

test.d(33): Error: function test.B.copy (const const(B) b) is not callable using argument types (A)
test.d(33): Error: cannot implicitly convert expression (a1) of type test.A to const(B)

It seems in D the copy() of B replaces (hides) the copy() of A, even if no override is used. I don't know why D is designed this way, it can even be a design/implementation bug. But the presence of that warning suggests me this is expected, so it's probably just a difference between Java and D. If no one answers to this here then maybe later I will ask about this in the main D group.

Bye,
bearophile