Archetypes

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For every concept defined in LehrFEM++, we provide an archetype class that models the corresponding concept in the most minimal way possible without providing extra functionality. It can be used to test whether other classes/functions which require a parameter to model a certain concept, only rely on the functionality which has been defined in the concept.

Lets consider an example to understand what we mean by this. Suppose we have a concept Animal:

template<class A>
concept Animal = requires(A a) {
   { a.MakeSound() } -> std::same_as<void>;
   { a.Eat() } -> std::same_as<void>;
};

Then we provide an archetype class AnimalAT that models the concept Animal:

struct AnimalAT {
    void MakeSound() const {}
    void Eat() const {}
};

We can check whether AnimalAT actually models the concept Animal by using the static_assert macro:

static_assert(Animal<AnimalAT>);

The archetype class AnimalAT is useful in a number of ways:

• Archetypes can document the methods of a concept. For example, the archetype AnimalAT documents that the concept Animal requires the methods MakeSound() and Eat(). Additionally we can put doxygen comments in front of MakeSound() and Eat() to document their intended functionality.
• If another function template requires a type that models the concept Animal, we can check with the archetype, that the function template only requires the functionality provided by the concept Animal. For example, assume that we have written the following errorneous function:

  void Feed(Animal auto& a) {
    a.Eat();
    a.Drink();
  }

  Using the archetype AnimalAT, we can check that the function Feed really only requires the functionality provided by the concept Animal. For this we explicitly instantiate the function Feed() (without actually calling it)

  template void Feed(AnimalAT&);

  We then get the following compiler error:

  error: 'struct AnimalAT' has no member named 'Drink'

• We can use Archetypes to deduce types of other classes which require types modelling the concept. For example, assume we have the following class:

  template<Animal A>
  class Owner {
    using gender_t = ...;
    gender_t Gender() const;
  }

  If we want to get the type gender_t we could just write:

  using gender_t = typename Owner<AnimalAT>::gender_t;

• We can use Archetypes to define more complex concepts. For example:

  template<class Z>
  concept Zoo = requires(Z z, AnimalAT a) {
    { z.Add(a)}} -> std::same_as<void>;
    };

See also

https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/archetype

lf::assemble::EntityMatrixProviderAT

lf::assemble::EntityVectorProviderAT

lf::mesh::utils::MeshFunctionAT