Code from talk: Inheritance Is The Base Class of Evil by Sean Parent at Going Native 2013

value-semantics-sean-parent.cpp

// Sean Parent. Inheritance Is The Base Class of Evil. Going Native 2013
// Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIhUE5uUFOA
// Code : https://github.com/sean-parent/sean-parent.github.io/wiki/Papers-and-Presentations

/*
    Copyright 2013 Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Distributed under the MIT License (see license at
    http://stlab.adobe.com/licenses.html)

    This file is intended as example code and is not production quality.
*/

#include <cassert>
#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

/******************************************************************************/
// Library

template <typename T>
void draw(const T& x, ostream& out, size_t position)
{
    out << string(position, ' ') << x << endl;
}

class object_t
{
public:
    template <typename T>
    object_t(T x) : self_(new model<T>(move(x)))
    { }

//    object_t(const object_t& x) : self_(x.self_->copy_())
//    { }
//
//    object_t(object_t&&) noexcept = default;
//
//    object_t& operator=(const object_t& x)
//    {
//        object_t tmp(x);
//        *this = move(tmp);
//        return *this;
//    }
//
//    object_t& operator=(object_t&&) noexcept = default;

    friend void draw(const object_t& x, ostream& out, size_t position)
    {
        x.self_->draw_(out, position);
    }

private:
    struct concept_t
    {
        virtual ~concept_t() = default;
//        virtual concept_t* copy_() const = 0;
        virtual void draw_(ostream&, size_t) const = 0;
    };

    template <typename T>
    struct model : concept_t
    {
        model(T x) : data_(move(x)) { }

//        concept_t* copy_() const
//        {
//            return new model(*this);
//        }

        void draw_(ostream& out, size_t position) const
        {
            draw(data_, out, position);
        }

        T data_;
    };

    shared_ptr<const concept_t> self_;
//    unique_ptr<const concept_t> self_;
};

using document_t = vector<object_t>;

void draw(const document_t& x, ostream& out, size_t position)
{
    out << string(position, ' ') << "<document>" << endl;
    for (auto& e : x) draw(e, out, position + 2);
    out << string(position, ' ') << "</document>" << endl;
}

using history_t = vector<document_t>;

void commit(history_t& x)
{
    assert(x.size());
    x.push_back(x.back());
}

void undo(history_t& x)
{
    assert(x.size());
    x.pop_back();
}

document_t& current(history_t& x)
{
    assert(x.size());
    return x.back();
}

/******************************************************************************/
// Client

class my_class_t
{
    /* ... */
};

void draw(const my_class_t&, ostream& out, size_t position)
{
    out << string(position, ' ') << "my_class_t" << endl;
}

int main()
{
    history_t h(1);

    current(h).emplace_back(0);
    current(h).emplace_back(string("Hello!"));

    draw(current(h), cout, 0);
    cout << "--------------------------" << endl;

    commit(h);

    current(h).emplace_back(current(h));
    current(h).emplace_back(my_class_t());
    current(h)[1] = string("World");

    draw(current(h), cout, 0);
    cout << "--------------------------" << endl;

    undo(h);

    draw(current(h), cout, 0);
}

#if 0
g++ -std=c++11 -o value-semantics-unique.exe value-semantics-unique.cpp && value-semantics-unique.exe 

<document>
  0
  Hello!
</document>
--------------------------
<document>
  0
  World
  <document>
    0
    Hello!
  </document>
  my_class_t
</document>
--------------------------
<document>
  0
  Hello!
</document>

#endif

Thank you for typing out and backing this up.

@benjamin-rood You're welcome :)