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Document number: N3723

Date: 2013-08-23

Extend operator-> to support rvalues

by Pascal Costanza

Excerpt:

We propose the following extension of C++ to enable user-provided definitions for operator-> that support move semantics:

• A user can choose to implement operator-> with an additional parameter of type int. If this definition is called, the parameter will have the value zero. A user can either implement operator-> with or without this additional parameter for a given class. It is invalid to provide both definitions for a given class.
• The return value of operator-> with the additional parameter is a complete class type, and the compiler generates a member access with the dot . operator on that return value instead of using the arrow -> operator.