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# Variable-Sized Object Representation

One of the first goals of the GNU C++ library is to enrich the kinds of basic classes that may be considered as (nearly) "built into" C++. A good deal of the inspiration for these efforts is derived from considering features of other type-rich languages, particularly Common Lisp and Scheme. The general characteristics of most class and friend operators and functions supported by these classes has been heavily influenced by such languages.

Four of these types, Strings, Integers, BitSets, and BitStrings (as well as associated and/or derived classes) require representations suitable for managing variable-sized objects on the free-store. The basic technique used for all of these is the same, although various details necessarily differ from class to class.

The general strategy for representing such objects is to create chunks of memory that include both header information (e.g., the size of the object), as well as the variable-size data (an array of some sort) at the end of the chunk. Generally the maximum size of an object is limited to something less than all of addressable memory, as a safeguard. The minimum size is also limited so as not to waste allocations expanding very small chunks. Internally, chunks are allocated in blocks well-tuned to the performance of the `new` operator.

Class elements themselves are merely pointers to these chunks. Most class operations are performed via inline "translation" functions that perform the required operation on the corresponding representation. However, constructors and assignments operate by copying entire representations, not just pointers.

No attempt is made to control temporary creation in expressions and functions involving these classes. Users of previous versions of the classes will note the disappearance of both "Tmp" classes and reference counting. These were dropped because, while they did improve performance in some cases, they obscure class mechanics, lead programmers into the false belief that they need not worry about such things, and occasionally have paradoxical behavior.

These variable-sized object classes are integrated as well as possible into C++. Most such classes possess converters that allow automatic coercion both from and to builtin basic types. (e.g., char* to and from String, long int to and from Integer, etc.). There are pro's and con's to circular converters, since they can sometimes lead to the conversion from a builtin type through to a class function and back to a builtin type without any special attention on the part of the programmer, both for better and worse.

Most of these classes also provide special-case operators and functions mixing basic with class types, as a way to avoid constructors in cases where the operations do not rely on anything special about the representations. For example, there is a special case concatenation operator for a String concatenated with a char, since building the result does not rely on anything about the String header. Again, there are arguments both for and against this approach. Supporting these cases adds a non-trivial degree of (mainly inline) function proliferation, but results in more efficient operations. Efficiency wins out over parsimony here, as part of the goal to produce classes that provide sufficient functionality and efficiency so that programmers are not tempted to try to manipulate or bypass the underlying representations.

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