[Development] What's the status of a moved-from object?

[Mutz, Marc]

On 2019-05-20 11:25, Giuseppe D'Angelo via Development wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Il 19/05/19 18:54, Thiago Macieira ha scritto:
>> But I think all Qt classes should go beyond that, unless they have 
>> VERY good
>> reasons not to do so (and document so). The moved-from object should 
>> also be
>> in a valid state so all the accessor and mutation API in the class can 
>> operate
>> in the object without ill effects. What they actually do, we can't 
>> tell, since
>> the initial state is unknowable. So apply the principle of GIGO.
> 
> So basically the same stance as the Standard Library? One should be
> able to invoke any function without preconditions on a moved-from
> object?

Except that the standard library has an easy way of implementing that, 
since there're no PIMPLs. For a PIMPLed class, it means that the move 
constructor either must allocate memory or that each and every PIMPLed 
value class needs to have a static unsharable null instance. This is 
relatively easy for some, but try that for QBrush. Or we litter all 
member functions with nullptr checks.

I agree that a moved-from object should be in the same state as a 
default-constructed one. I disagree with that that state must always be 
a valid value of the class. I agree with Stepanov that the default 
constructor should be establishing the partially-formed state, ie, only 
destruction and assignment are valid. It _can_ do more, but only if it 
stays noexcept.

Or maybe we don't disagree at all and Thiago would accept allocating 
memory (or, by extension, anything that's noexcept(false)) as a very 
good reason to have a nullptr d?

Thanks,
Marc