I'm wondering, who here would use a swap operator if it were available?
Something that would be normally achieved through:
temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
or for the more bit-wise ;)
a ^= b;
b ^= a;
a ^= b;
It's something I've never actually seen implemented in any higher level
language, but finds uses in linked lists, binary trees, and other data
structures and algorithms. Temp wouldn't need to be an addressable value, so
theoretically this operator (which I propose to be "<=>") could be
compiler-optimized into an x86 xchg opcode for example. It could properly
deal with references, data structures, class instances, etc. and not require
the programmer to worry about these details.
I know that the chance of it actually being implemented is close to nil, but
even a template in the standard library for it would be cool (or did I miss
something?). Or am I being deluded? :)
