Need meta-programming magic to define a mother lode of bit fields in an error-free way.

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

IFAIK, The boost preprocessor library http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_43_0/libs/preprocessor/doc/index.html has all the primitives you need.

Answer 2

If you do decide to go the code generation route then I suggest taking a look at Cog.

Cog lets you embed python code as comments in the C++ (or any other language) source file, and when run through Cog the python output is inserted as source code, so the generator code and generated output are all managed in the same file. This keeps maintenance simple. and the python code documents how the generated code was created.

Here is your example using cog, including the generated code:

namespace XYZPermissionBits
{
    /* [[[cog
    import cog
    operations = ["A", "B", "C", "D", 
                  "E", "F", "G", "H",
                  "I", "J", "K", "L"]

    assert 2 <= len(operations) <= 64

    for idx,op in enumerate(operations):
        cog.outl("SCU64 XYZ_OP_%s = 1UI64 << %s;" % (op, idx))

    ]]] */
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_A = 1UI64 << 0;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_B = 1UI64 << 1;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_C = 1UI64 << 2;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_D = 1UI64 << 3;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_E = 1UI64 << 4;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_F = 1UI64 << 5;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_G = 1UI64 << 6;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_H = 1UI64 << 7;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_I = 1UI64 << 8;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_J = 1UI64 << 9;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_K = 1UI64 << 10;
    SCU64 XYZ_OP_L = 1UI64 << 11;
// [[[end]]]
}

Answer 3

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)
    // ...
);

Answer 4

Instead of macros/preprocessors/etc I'd stick with a static text file similar to the original. It seems much easier to understand and expand or maintain. I might define each value as a shift of the previous value, but that might seem more confusing to some readers. To help prevent typos by users, I'd probably use a more verbose abbreviation for each "op" instead of A, B, C (defined twice), D...

Answer 5

I've done something like this. Create a macro called MAKE_THINGS that looks like:

#define MAKE_THINGS \
  MAKE_THING(NAME1) \
  MAKE_THING(NAME2) \
  MAKE_THING(NAME3) \
  /* Include semantically-blank line after list */

One can then define MAKE_THING, start a declaration, call MAKE_THINGS, end the declaration, and undefine MAKE_THING. If desired, each thing can include more than one attribute:

For example:

#define MAKE_THINGS \
  MAKE_THING(HAPPY,"Happy") \
  MAKE_THING(SAD_AND_BLUE,"Sad and blue") \
  MAKE_THING(SLEEPY,"Sleepy") \
  /* Include semantically-blank line after list */

#define MAKE_THING(x,y) NUMBER_##x,
typedef enum {MAKE_THINGS LAST_THING} THING_NUMBER;
#undef MAKE_THING

#define MAKE_THING(x,y) FLAG_##x = (1L << NUMBER##x),
typedef enum {MAKE_THINGS ALL_FLAGS = (1 << LAST_THING)-1} THING_FLAGS;
#undef MAKE_THING

#define MAKE_THING(x,y) const char *MSG_##x = y;
MAKE_THINGS
#undef MAKE_THING

#define MAKE_THING(x,y) MSG_##x,
const char *thing_names[] = {MAKE_THINGS 0};
#undef MAKE_THING

Note that all of the declarations are automatically kept parallel. Each thing gets a number (0..N-1), an flag (bit corresponding to its number), a message string, and a place in an array of message strings.