Github user ringerc commented on the issue:
https://github.com/apache/thrift/pull/84
I see a bunch of mutual recursive structure support in the tests, but
nothing for an optional single self-referential member, like
```
struct RecSelf {
1: i16 item
2: optional RecSelf
}
```
Thift does not appear to generate sensible code for this. The example I am
working with is from the opentracing jaeger toolset, namely the IDL
```
struct Downstream {
1: required string serviceName
2: required string serverRole
3: required string host
4: required string port
5: required Transport transport
6: optional Downstream downstream
}
```
This works fine in Java, Go, etc. But in C++ it produces the nonsensical
code
```
class Downstream {
public:
/* blah elided blah */
virtual ~Downstream() throw();
std::string serviceName;
std::string serverRole;
std::string host;
std::string port;
Transport::type transport;
Downstream downstream;
_Downstream__isset __isset;
/* blah elided blah */
};
```
in which the class is a by-value member of its self.
I think the ideal solution here would be to adopt something like
`std::optional` (c++17 proposal) as a `thrift::optional` and use that instead
of the `__isset` stuff for optional members. But backwards compatibility could
be a problem.
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