1. 17 Aug, 2017 1 commit
    • Jason Rhinelander's avatar
      Allow binding factory functions as constructors · 464d9896
      Jason Rhinelander authored
      This allows you to use:
      
          cls.def(py::init(&factory_function));
      
      where `factory_function` returns a pointer, holder, or value of the
      class type (or a derived type).  Various compile-time checks
      (static_asserts) are performed to ensure the function is valid, and
      various run-time type checks where necessary.
      
      Some other details of this feature:
      - The `py::init` name doesn't conflict with the templated no-argument
        `py::init<...>()`, but keeps the naming consistent: the existing
        templated, no-argument one wraps constructors, the no-template,
        function-argument one wraps factory functions.
      - If returning a CppClass (whether by value or pointer) when an CppAlias
        is required (i.e. python-side inheritance and a declared alias), a
        dynamic_cast to the alias is attempted (for the pointer version); if
        it fails, or if returned by value, an Alias(Class &&) constructor
        is invoked.  If this constructor doesn't exist, a runtime error occurs.
      - for holder returns when an alias is required, we try a dynamic_cast of
        the wrapped pointer to the alias to see if it is already an alias
        instance; if it isn't, we raise an error.
      - `py::init(class_factory, alias_factory)` is also available that takes
        two factories: the first is called when an alias is not needed, the
        second when it is.
      - Reimplement factory instance clearing.  The previous implementation
        failed under python-side multiple inheritance: *each* inherited
        type's factory init would clear the instance instead of only setting
        its own type value.  The new implementation here clears just the
        relevant value pointer.
      - dealloc is updated to explicitly set the leftover value pointer to
        nullptr and the `holder_constructed` flag to false so that it can be
        used to clear preallocated value without needing to rebuild the
        instance internals data.
      - Added various tests to test out new allocation/deallocation code.
      - With preallocation now done lazily, init factory holders can
        completely avoid the extra overhead of needing an extra
        allocation/deallocation.
      - Updated documentation to make factory constructors the default
        advanced constructor style.
      - If an `__init__` is called a second time, we have two choices: we can
        throw away the first instance, replacing it with the second; or we can
        ignore the second call.  The latter is slightly easier, so do that.
      464d9896