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I Don't Use Exceptions in C++ Anymore
(thelig.ht)
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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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Programming
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It's a shame that sum type support is still so lacking in C++. Proper
Resulttypes (ala Haskell or Rust) are generally much nicer to deal with, especially in embedded contexts.As is, there's only
std::expected(which can and will blow up in your face if you forget to checkhas_value) andstd::variant, which I have heard nothing but complaints about.I don't think this is a lack of support in C++. There are already a few C++ libraries that implement Either and Result monads. It would be nice if those were supported in the C++ stand library, but that does not stop anyone from adopting them.
I would consider language support essential for "good" sum types. AFAIK, stuff like exhaustive pattern matching can't be accomplished by a library. Perhaps you could do some cursed stuff with compiler plugins, however.
(There was a library that implemented non-exhaustive pattern matching that eventually morphed into an ISO C++ proposal... so we won't see it until 2030 at the earliest /hj)
At a library level, couldn't you have an opaque sum type where the only thing you can do with it is call a
matchmethod that requires a function pointer for each possible variant of the sum type? It'd be pretty cursed to use but at least it wouldn't require compiler plugins.I'd bet five bucks some desperate Haskeller or Rustacean has implemented exactly that. You could also probably use nested functions for GCC C or lambdas in C++ to move everything inline?