08-24-10 - AutoPrintf Release

Okay, I think AutoPrintf is close enough to final to release it. The nicer, more readable version is in : cblib.zip , but I understand you all like little autonomous files, so I grabbed the shit it needs and crammed it together in an ugly mess here :

apf.h
apf.cpp
apf.inc

(among other advantages, the cblib version doesn't pull vector.h or windows.h into the apf headers, both of which I consider to be very severe sins)

See older posts for a description of how it works and earlier not-good way of doing it and initial announcement .

The basic way it works is :

• non-basic types are converted into basic types by the template using autoArgConvert; base types are passed through and others get ToString() called on them.

• "%a" in the format string is turned into the type of the variable it points at (eg %d , %s, whatever). So you can of course use "%7a" or anything else that printf can handle.

• I just call normal printf to do the actual printing.

that's it, very simple!

Here's my main.cpp for an example of usage :

#include < float.h >
#include < stdio.h >     
#include < string.h >

//#include "autoprintf.h"
#include "apf.h"

#include < windows.h >

struct Vec3 { float x,y,z; };

namespace apf 
{
inline const String ToString( const Vec3 & v )
{
    return StringPrintf("{%.3f,%.3f,%.3f}",v.x,v.y,v.z);
}

/*
inline size_t autoArgConvert(const HWND arg)
{
    return (size_t)arg;
}
*/

inline const String ToString( const HWND v )
{
    return StringPrintf("[%08X]",v);
}
};
    
int main(int argc,const char * argv[])
{   
    //MakeAutoPrintfINL();
    
    //autoprintf("test bad %d",3.f);
    
    autoprintf("hello %-7a",(size_t)400,"|\n");
    
    //*
    //autoprintf("100%");
    autoprintf("percent %% %s","100%"," stupid","!\n");
    autoprintf("hello ","world %.1f",3.f,"\n");
    autoprintf("hello ",7," world\n");
    autoprintf("hello %03d\n",7);
    autoprintf("hello %d",3," world %.1f\n",3.f);
    autoprintf("hello ",(size_t)400,"\n");
    autoprintf("hello ",L"unicode is balls"," \n");
    autoprintf("hello %a ",L"unicode is balls"," \n");
    //autoprintf("hello %S ",L"unicode is balls"," \n");
    autoprintf("hello ",apf::String("world")," \n");
//  autoprintf("hello ",LogString()); // compile error
    
    autoprintf("top bit ",(1UL<<31)," \n");
    autoprintf("top bit %d",(1UL<<31)," \n");
    autoprintf("top bit %a",(1UL<<31)," \n");
    autoprintf("top bit %a\n",(size_t)(1UL<<31));
    
    HANDLE h1 = (HANDLE) 77;
    HWND h2 = (HWND) 77;
    autoprintf("HANDLE %a\n",h1);
    autoprintf("HWND %a\n",h2);
    
    char temp[1024];
    autosnprintf(temp,1023,"hello %a %a %a",4.f,7,apf::String("world"));
    printf("%s\n",temp);
    
    Vec3 v = { 3, 7, 1.5f };
    autoprintf("vector ",v," \n");
    autoprintf("vector %a is cool %a\n",v,(size_t)100);
    /**/
        
    return 0;
}

The normal way to make user types autoconvert is to add a ToString() call for your type, but you could also use autoArgConvert. If you use autoArgConvert, then you will wind up going through a normal %d or whatever.

One nice thing is that this autoprintf is actually even safer than my old safeprintf. If you mismatch primitive types, (eg. you put a %d in your format string but pass a float), it will check it using the same old safeprintf method (that is, a runtime failure). But if you put a std::string in the list when you meant to put a char *, you will get a compile error now, which is much nicer.

Everything in cblib now uses this (I made Log.h be an autoprintf) and I haven't noticed a significant hit to compile time or exe size since the templates are all now deterministic and non-recursive.

Yes it does a lot of dynamic allocation. Get with the fucking 20th century. And it's fucking printf. Printf is slow. I don't want to hear one word about it.