On Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 7:15 PM Will Hawkins <hawkinsw@obs.cr> wrote:
Hello everyone!

I hope that these are reasonable questions and not a waste of time.

First, I have been reading the requirements for forward iterators in 23.3.5.5 and am focused on Paragraph 2 [1].

Given,
- The vector v in std::vector<int> v{}; is an empty sequence, and
- The vector iterator v_it in std::vector<v>::iterator v_it{}; is a value-initialized iterator that meets the requirements of forward iterator,

is it specified (per Note 1 of Paragraph 2) that

v.end() == v_it

?

After further discussion with another language expert, I have been convinced that the paragraph does not specify that v.end() must equal v_it. Rather, it only specifies that

v_it == u_it

where

std::vector<v>::iterator v_it{};
std::vector<v>::iterator u_it{};

Is this the correct conclusion to draw from that paragraph?

My confusion arose from the use of the phrase "same empty sequence" in Note 1. I was reading that to mean "all empty sequences of the same type".

I would love to know why Note 1 was included. It seems to add ambiguity rather than clarify. Thoughts?

Thanks again for taking the time to engage on this point!

Will
 

To say it a different way, does that paragraph and its note specify what this should print?

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

int main() {
  std::vector<int> int_vector{};
  std::vector<int>::iterator int_vector_it{};

  if (int_vector_it == int_vector.end())
    std::cout << "int_vector_it == int_vector.end()\n";
  else
    std::cout << "int_vector_it != int_vector.end()\n";
  return 1;
}

Second, forward iterators are required to be default constructible. I can find no requirement in the standard for the semantics of a default-initialized forward iterator's value. Is it specified as implementation defined? The only clue comes from [2] which could be read to imply that a default-initialized iterator should follow the specification's semantics for default-initialized pointers.

These issues have been driving me mad for several days. Again, I hope that they are reasonable questions and that I am not wasting your time.

Thanks in advance for any responses!
Will


[1] https://eel.is/c++draft/forward.iterators#2
[2] https://eel.is/c++draft/iterator.requirements#general-7