Question

The goal is to control which types of users are allowed to perform which operations at the UI level. This code has been in place for a while; I just want to improve it a bit.
The file which I am trying to improve should probably be auto-generated, but that would be too big of a change, so I seek a simpler solution.

A file which we shall call PermissionBits.h has a bunch of these:

// Here names are mangled; for example XYZ_OP_A is:
// permission to operation A in category/context XYZ
// SCU64 = static const unsigned __int64
// Some namespaces utilize all 64 bits
// The actual values (as long as they are proper bit fields) 
// do not matter - they are always used by name
namespace XYZPermissionBits
{
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_A = 1UI64 <<  0; //    1 = 0x0000000000000001
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_B = 1UI64 <<  1; //    2 = 0x0000000000000002
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_C = 1UI64 <<  2; //    4 = 0x0000000000000004
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_C = 1UI64 <<  3; //    8 = 0x0000000000000008
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_D = 1UI64 <<  4; //   16 = 0x0000000000000010
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_E = 1UI64 <<  5; //   32 = 0x0000000000000020
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_F = 1UI64 <<  6; //   64 = 0x0000000000000040
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_G = 1UI64 <<  7; //  128 = 0x0000000000000080
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_H = 1UI64 <<  8; //  256 = 0x0000000000000100
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_I = 1UI64 <<  9; //  512 = 0x0000000000000200
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_J = 1UI64 << 10; // 1024 = 0x0000000000000400
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_K = 1UI64 << 11; // 2048 = 0x0000000000000800
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_L = 1UI64 << 12; // 4096 = 0x0000000000001000 
}

Even with the help of 1UI64 << <numBits>; shortcut there are still problems, as coders create flags with duplicate values, make typos, etc.

Ideally I would like a macro which can be nicely formatted and look like:

BITFIELDS_FOR_NAMESPACE(
    //*************** <<== I want to make the namespace name more vivid
    XYZPermissionBits,
    //*************** <<== somehow if that is possible. It is not a must-have.
    XYZ_OP_A, // Being able to add a comment here would be nice, but not critical
    XYZ_OP_B,
    XYZ_OP_C,
    XYZ_OP_D,
    XYZ_OP_E,
    XYZ_OP_F,
    XYZ_OP_G,
    XYZ_OP_H,
    XYZ_OP_I,
    XYZ_OP_J,
    XYZ_OP_K,
    XYZ_OP_L
)

I would like this macro be flexible and prevent me from entering less than 2 or more than 65 arguments – namespace name + 64 flags. Is it possible to do what I want or close to it, or should I resort to generated code? What other advice do you have?

Answer 1

Tested example using Boost.PreProcessor:

#include <boost/preprocessor/seq/for_each_i.hpp>
#include <boost/preprocessor/comparison/greater.hpp>
#include <boost/preprocessor/comparison/less.hpp>
#include <boost/preprocessor/debug/assert.hpp>
#include <boost/preprocessor/seq/size.hpp>

#define CHECK_SIZE(size) \
  BOOST_PP_ASSERT_MSG(BOOST_PP_GREATER(size, 1), "<  2 :(") \
  BOOST_PP_ASSERT_MSG(BOOST_PP_LESS(size, 65),   "> 64 :(") \

#define DO_MAKE_BITFIELDS(a, b, i, elem) \
  SCU64 elem = 1UI64 << i;

#define BITFIELDS_FOR_NAMESPACE(name, seq) \
  CHECK_SIZE(BOOST_PP_SEQ_SIZE(seq)) \
  namespace name { \
    BOOST_PP_SEQ_FOR_EACH_I(DO_MAKE_BITFIELDS, _, seq) \
  }

Usage:

BITFIELDS_FOR_NAMESPACE(
    XYZPermissionBits,
    (XYZ_OP_A)
    (XYZ_OP_B)
    // ...
);