On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 5:55 PM Giuseppe D'Angelo via Std-Proposals <
std-proposals_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm attaching the first draft for a proposal for std::take, a function
> that moves from an object, resets it to its default constructed state,
> and returns the old value.
>

I don't understand how this is different from
    newobj = std::exchange(obj, {});

Even after reading the motivation... is it just to save a few characters?
    newobj = std::exchange(obj, {}); // longer
    newobj = std::take(obj); // shorter

The big costs of `std::exchange(obj, {})` as far as I'm concerned are that
you have to default-construct a whole T object, pass std::exchange a
*reference* to that object, call the assignment operator which has to
conditionally free the old resource, and finally destroy the temporary T
object (which has to conditionally free the resource). I can see how it
would be beneficial to coalesce some of these operations into a tighter
package like std::take. But I don't see how your suggested implementation
of std::take actually helps. You're still constructing a temporary T,
calling the assignment operator, and calling the destructor of the
temporary.

    // std::take of a string
    {
    std::string temp{};
    newobj = std::move(obj);
    obj = std::move(temp);
    } // temp.~string();

    // what you want instead
    newobj = std::move(obj);
    obj.clear();

Here's the difference in codegen: https://godbolt.org/z/n54arb

So the $64,000 question is: How do you get the good codegen?

If you can't get the good codegen, then I don't see the point of making a
wrapper around std::exchange(obj, {}). It's already short and clear enough
— certainly clearer than std::take(obj), *this year*, since people have
already had 20 years to learn what std::exchange means. You'll have to
teach them what std::take means, and (more importantly) why to use it. If
you can't explain why to use it, then it's not a good idea. "It produces
better codegen" would be a great explanation... but how do we get from here
to there?

HTH,
–Arthur