typeof throws away the reference

[Giovanni Bajo]

Jari Petter Sundell <jaris@student.matnat.uio.no> wrote:

> Compiling the following on g++-3.3 and 3.5-tree-ssa does not give a
> "could not convert `0' to ` int&'" for either of the assignments. Why
> doesn't typeof preserve the reference?
>
> int& f();
>
> int main() {
>   int& a = f();
>
>   typeof(a) r = 0;
>   typeof(f()) s = 0;
> }


Because our implementation of typeof is the so-called "reference-dropping
typeof". There are pros and cons. This document should give you some clue:
http://www.osl.iu.edu/~jajarvi/publications/papers/decltype_revisited_n1527.pdf
(not sure if it's the last version).

Giovanni Bajo