libcruft-util/except.hpp

/*
 * This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
 * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
 * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
 *
 * Copyright 2018 Danny Robson <danny@nerdcruft.net>
 */

#pragma once

#include <utility>
#include <iosfwd>
#include <string>

namespace cruft {
    /// A base exception class for all cruft libraries.
    ///
    /// There is deliberately no `what` method as it's not always acceptable
    /// to store a string that we can return a pointer to. Instead we rely on
    /// the `describe` method to output to a std::ostream. The user can wrangle
    /// that into a std::string if they need one.
    class error {
    public:
        virtual ~error () = default;
        virtual std::ostream& describe (std::ostream&) const = 0;
    };


    /// A mixin error class that can be used when inheriting from
    /// `cruft::error`.
    ///
    /// It accepts a single std::string, saving it so that it can be passed
    /// through to a std::ostream later on.
    ///
    /// By setting `BaseT` to a locally useful error class we can still
    /// maintain an appropriate exception hierarchy for a given module.
    /// eg, pass `foo::error` (which derives eventually from `cruft::error`)
    /// in the module `foo`.
    ///
    /// \tparam BaseT   The desired base class.
    template <typename BaseT>
    class string_error : public BaseT {
    public:
        template <typename... Args>
        string_error (std::string const &_message, Args &&...args)
            : BaseT (std::forward<Args> (args)...)
            , m_message (_message)
        { ; }

        std::ostream&
        describe (std::ostream &os) const override
        {
            return os << m_message;
        }

    private:
        std::string m_message;
    };


    /// Use `error::describe` to render the supplied error object to a
    /// std::ostream.
    std::ostream&
    operator<< (std::ostream &os, error const&);
}