CGAL users discussion list

["Eivind LM" <>]

Speaking of Vertex_handle; am I the only one to mix up '.' and '->' with  
Vertex_handle?

I'm used to having

  std::list< MyObject > objects;
  std::list< MyObject >::iterator it = objects.begin();

and when I dereference the iterator, then I'm getting a MyObject back, so  
I would call

  (*it).do_something(); // using '.' instead of '->' since (*it) is  
MyObject


However, if I have

  std::list< Vertex_handle > vertices;
  std::list< Vertex_handle >::iterator it = vertices.begin();

then I need to do

  (*it)->point(); // using '->' instead of '.'


Using '*' and '->' at the same time on a variable (which is not a pointer  
type) looks "wrong" in my eyes, so I very often automatically write

  (*it).point(); // error


The compiler error I would expect in this case is

  request for member ‘point’ in ‘* it’, which is of non-class type [...]

but instead I get

  [...] has no member named ‘point’

which was very confusing in the beginning. The crucial point is that  
Vertex_handle implements "operator->", but I didn't realize this until I  
had a look in the source. Has anyone else been confused by the same thing?

Can I generally assume that all types that end with "_handle" in CGAL  
implements an "operator->"?

Eivind