Question

I have some code which seems unambiguous to me, but gcc4.7 is choking on it:

#include <iostream>
#include <tuple>

using namespace std;

// Container for mixins
template<template<typename> class... Mixins>
struct Mix : Mixins<Mix<Mixins...>>... {
  typedef tuple<Mixins<Mix<Mixins...>>...> types;
};

// Outer layer extracts the type tuple from the argument
template<typename T>
struct InnerCombiner {
  typedef typename InnerCombiner<typename T::types>::type type;
};

// Typedef type to be a new mix of the inner mixins of the MixedMixins
template<typename... MixedMixins>
struct InnerCombiner<tuple<MixedMixins...>> {
  // This line is the problem. The compiler doesn't seem to be able to make sense
  // of the reference to the inner mixin template template classes
  typedef Mix<MixedMixins::InnerMixin...> type;
};

template<typename Mixed>
struct A {
  template<typename MixedInner>
  struct InnerMixin {
    void foo() { cout << "foo() loves you!" << endl; };
  };
};

template<typename Mixed>
struct B {
  template<typename MixedInner>
  struct InnerMixin {
    void bar() { cout << "bar() loves you!" << endl; };
  };
};

// I'm going to write out the type I expect ic to have. Oh god, it's so nasty:
// Mix<
//   A<Mix<A,B>>::InnerMixin<Mix<A<Mix<A,B>>::InnerMixin,B<Mix<A,B>>::InnerMixin>,
//   B<Mix<A,B>>::InnerMixin<Mix<A<Mix<A,B>>::InnerMixin,B<Mix<A,B>>::InnerMixin>
// >


int main() {
  InnerCombiner<Mix<A,B>>::type ic;

  ic.bar(); // Not working.
}

Is there something wrong with accessing InnerMixins this way? It seemed pretty reasonable when I wrote it 🙂

Answer 1

I can make it work on clang 3.0 by specifying InnerMixin a template:

typedef Mix<MixedMixins::template InnerMixin...> type;
//                       ^^^^^^^^

but it still fails on g++ 4.8, with

3.cpp:23:52: error: parameter packs not expanded with ‘...’:
3.cpp:23:52: note:         ‘MixedMixins’