Bug 16317 – Add strict_aliasing_cast<T>() to avoid need for custom unions

• Component: New Bugs
• Status: NEW

[Eric Seidel (no email)]

Add strict_aliasing_cast<T>() to avoid need for custom unions

We could do things like:
http://trac.webkit.org/projects/webkit/changeset/28455

Using a template function, which I think might lead to more readable code:

template<type T, type S>
strict_aliasing_cast<T>(S original)
{
    union TmpUnion {
        S original;
        T casted;
    };

    TmpUnion u;
    u.original = original;
    return u.casted;
}

then that change just becomes:

return strict_aliasing_cast<TMalloc_Heap*>(&pageheap_memory[0]);

[Eric Seidel (no email)]

Didn't sam already add something like this?  If so, this should be closed.

[Martin Robinson]

If I'm not mistaken, this looks to be bitwise_cast in JavaScriptCore/wtf/StdLibExtras.h. So this bug can probably be closed.