Rule-of-Three becomes Rule-of-Five with C++11?

Question

So, after watching this wonderful lecture on rvalue references, I thought that every class would benefit of such a "move constructor", template<class T> MyClass(T&& other) edit and of course a "move assignment operator", template<class T> MyClass& operator=(T&& other) as Philipp points out in his answer, if it has dynamically allocated members, or generally stores pointers. Just like you should have a copy-ctor, assignment operator and destructor if the points mentioned before apply. Thoughts?

Answer 1

Basically, it's like this: If you don't declare any move operations, you should respect the rule of three. If you declare a move operation, there is no harm in "violating" the rule of three as the generation of compiler-generated operations has gotten very restrictive. Even if you don't declare move operations and violate the rule of three, a C++0x compiler is expected to give you a warning in case one special function was user-declared and other special functions have been auto-generated due to a now deprecated "C++03 compatibility rule".

I think it's safe to say that this rule becomes a little less significant. The real problem in C++03 is that implementing different copy semantics required you to user-declare all related special functions so that none of them is compiler-generated (which would otherwise do the wrong thing). But C++0x changes the rules about special member function generation. If the user declares just one of these functions to change the copy semantics it'll prevent the compiler from auto-generating the remaining special functions. This is good because a missing declaration turns a runtime error into a compilation error now (or at least a warning). As a C++03 compatibility measure some operations are still generated but this generation is deemed deprecated and should at least produce a warning in C++0x mode.

Due to the rather restrictive rules about compiler-generated special functions and the C++03 compatibility, the rule of three stays the rule of three.

Here are some exaples that should be fine with newest C++0x rules:

template<class T>
class unique_ptr
{
   T* ptr;
public:
   explicit unique_ptr(T* p=0) : ptr(p) {}
   ~unique_ptr();
   unique_ptr(unique_ptr&&);
   unique_ptr& operator=(unique_ptr&&);
};

In the above example, there is no need to declare any of the other special functions as deleted. They simply won't be generated due to the restrictive rules. The presence of a user-declared move operations disables compiler-generated copy operations. But in a case like this:

template<class T>
class scoped_ptr
{
   T* ptr;
public:
   explicit scoped_ptr(T* p=0) : ptr(p) {}
   ~scoped_ptr();
};

a C++0x compiler is now expected to produce a warning about possibly compiler-generated copy operations that might do the wrong thing. Here, the rule of three matters and should be respected. A warning in this case is totally appropriate and gives the user the chance to handle the bug. We can get rid of the issue via deleted functions:

template<class T>
class scoped_ptr
{
   T* ptr;
public:
   explicit scoped_ptr(T* p=0) : ptr(p) {}
   ~scoped_ptr();
   scoped_ptr(scoped_ptr const&) = delete;
   scoped_ptr& operator=(scoped_ptr const&) = delete;
};

So, the rule of three still applies here simply because of the C++03 compatibility.

Answer 2

I don't think so, the rule of three is a rule of thumb that states that a class that implements one of the following but not them all is probably buggy.

1. Copy constructor
2. Assignment operator
3. Destructor

However leaving out the move constructor or move assignment operator does not imply a bug. It may be a missed opportunity at optimization (in most cases) or that move semantics aren't relevant for this class but this isn't a bug.

While it may be best practice to define a move constructor when relevant, it isn't mandatory. There are many cases in which a move constructor isn't relevant for a class (e.g. std::complex) and all classes that behave correctly in C++03 will continue to behave correctly in C++0x even if they don't define a move constructor.