c++ standard practice: virtual interface classes vs. templates

Question

I have to make a decision regarding generalization vs polymorphism.

Well the scenario is standard: I want to make my monolithic interdependent code to be more modular, clean and extensible. It is still in a stage where the change of design principle is doable, and, as I look at it, highly desirable.

Will I introduce purely virtual base classes (interfaces) or templates?

I am aware of the basics regarding the template option: less indirection, better performance, more compiling but no late binding, and so on.

The stl does not use much (or none?) inheritance, and boost doesn't either. But I think those are aimed to be really small basic tools that are used every 2 lines of code by the programmer.

I consider the inheritance and late binding approach to be more sensible for plug-in style of big pieces of code and functionality that should be interchangeable, updateable etc. after deployment or even during runtime.

Well my scenario lies somewhat inbetween.

I dont need to exchange pieces of code on the fly at runtime, compile time is fine. Usually it is also a very central and frequently used piece of functionality, it is not logically seperatable into big blocks.

This lets me tend somewhat to the template solution. To me it also looks somewhat cleaner.

Are there any big bad implications, are interfaces still THE way to go? When are they not? Which complies more with standard c++ style?

I know this is bordering on subjective, but I am really interested in some experiences. I don't own a copy of Scott Meyers effective C++ so I set my hopes on you guys :)

Answer 1

You're basically right, dynamic polymorphism (inheritance, virtuals) is generally the right choice when the type should be allowed to change at runtime (for example in plugin architectures). Static polymorphism (templates) is a better choice if the type should only change at compile-time.

The only potential downsides to templates are that 1) they generally have to be defined in the headers (which means more code gets #included), and this often leads to slower compile-times.

But design-wise, I can't see any problems in using templates when possible.

Which complies more with standard c++ style?

Depends on what "standard C++ style" is. The C++ standard library uses a bit of everything. The STL uses templates for everything, the slightly older IOStreams library uses inheritance and virtual functions, and the library functions inherited from C uses neither, of course.

These days, templates are by far the most popular choice though, and I'd have to say that is the most "standard" approach.

Answer 2

It's something of a false opposition. Yes, the major use of inheritance and virtual functions is in iostreams, which are very old, and are written in quite a different style to the rest of the std libraries.

But many of the "coolest" modern C++ libraries such as boost do make use of runtime polymorphism, they just use templates to make it more convenient to use.

boost::any and std::tr1::function (formerly also from boost) are fine examples.

They are both single item containers to something whose concrete type is unknown at compile-time (this is especially obvious with any, because it has its own kind of dynamic cast operator to get the value out).

Answer 3

Properties of classic object-oriented polymorphy:

• objects are bound at run-time; this is more flexible, but also more slowly
• strong typing brings somewhat more type safety, but the need to dynamic_cast (and its potential to blow up into a customer's face) might easily compensate for that
• probably more widely known and understood, but "classical" deep inheritance hierarchies seem horrendous to me

Properties of compile-time polymorphy by template:

• compile-time binding allows more aggressive optimizations, but prevents run-time flexibility
• duck-typing might seem more awkward, but failures are usually compile-time failures
• can sometimes be harder to read and understand; without concepts, compiler diagnostics might sometimes become enraging

Note that there is no need to decide for either one. You can freely mix and mingle both of them (and many other idioms and paradigms). Often, this leads to very impressive (and expressive) code. (See, for example, thing like type erasure.) To get an idea what's possible through clever mixing of paradigms, you might want to browse through Alexandrescu's "Modern C++ Design".

Answer 4

From my point of view it is what ever you are best at. If you have more experience with OO use OO. If you have more experience with generics use generics.

Both techniques have some equivalent patterns that mean for a lot of things you can use either. EG Strategy in OO vs Policy in Generics or Template Method in OO vs Commonly Recurring Template Pattern in Generics.

If you are planning refactor production code that already works but the structure is a bit smelly. Don't use it as an excuse to play with some new design technique, because in a year or two once you understand the technique better you may regret how you refactored your code. It is very easy to introduce a new inflexibilities when applying techniques as you are learning them. The aim of is to improve the design of existing code if you aren't skilled in a technique how do you know you are improving the design as opposed to building a large phallic symbol in your code.

Personally I am better at OO and tend to favour it as I know I can produce clean designs that are easy to understand and that most people can change. Most generic code I right is aimed at interfacing with other generic code, eg writing an iterator, or a generic function for algorithms.

Answer 5

After having shoveled a little more experience on my plate, there are some things in templates that I don't like: There are certain disadvantages that disqualify template meta programming from being a useable language:

• readability: too many brackets, too many non language enforced(therefore misused) conventions
• for someone undergoing the usual evolution in programming languages, templates are unreadable und incomprehensible (just look at boost bgl)
• Sometimes it feels like someone tried to write a c++ code generator in awk.
• compiler error messages are cl(utter)ed crap
• too many hacks necessary (most of them remedied in c++0x) to get some basic "language" like functionality.
• No Templates in implementation files resulting in header only libraries (which is a very two sided sword)
• usual IDE's code completion features are not of much help with templates.
• Doing big stuff in MPL seems "haggly", can't find another word for it. Every line of templated code produces constraints on that template type, which are enforced in a text-replacing kind of way. There are semantics inherent in inheritance hierarchies, there are none whatsoever in template structures. It's like everything is a void* and the compiler tries to tell you if there'll be a segfault.

All that being said, I use it quite successfully on basic utilities and libraries. Writing high-level functionality or hardware related stuff with it, doesn't seem to cut it for me. Meaning I template my building blocks but build the house the classic way.

Answer 6

I use both in my large code base. When the type is known at compile time, I design it with templates, when it's known only at run time, I use virtual functions. I find the virtual functions easier to program and easier to read later, however there are times where performance is critical and the fact that the templated polymorphism (if you can really call it polymorphism) can be inlined really helps.