This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 115d. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.
2024-10-26
It is not clear when, if ever, a constructor template can be considered to provide a default constructor. For example:
struct A { template<typename ...T> A(T...); // #1 A(std::initializer_list<long>); // #2 }; A a{};
According to 9.4.5 [dcl.init.list] paragraph 3, A will be value-initialized if it has a default constructor, and there is implementation divergence whether this example calls #1 or #2.
Similarly, for an example like
struct B { template<typename T=int> B(T = 0); };
it is not completely clear whether a default constructor should be implicitly declared or not.
More generally, do utterances in the Standard concerning “constructors” also apply to constructor templates?
Notes from the February, 2014 meeting:
One possibility discussed was that we may need to change places that explicitly refer to a default constructor to use overload resolution, similar to the change that was made a few years ago with regard to copy construction vs “copy constructor.” One additional use of “default constructor” is in determining the triviality of a class, but it might be a good idea to remove the concept of a trivial class altogether. This possibility will be explored.
Notes from the February, 2016 meeting:
CWG reaffirmed the direction from the preceding note and also determined that the presence of a constructor template should suppress implicit declaration of a default constructor.
Additional notes (April, 2024)
The standard does not seem to contain a use of "trivial class" outside of examples. See paper P3247R0 Deprecate the notion of trivial types.
Additional examples to consider for the definition of "trivial class":
struct A { A() = default; //eligible, second constructor unsatisfied template<class... Args> A(Args&&... args) requires (sizeof...(Args) > 0) {} }; struct B { B() = default; //ineligible, second constructor more constrained template<class... Args> B(Args&&... args) requires (sizeof...(Args) == 0) {} }; struct C { C() = default; //eligible, but template<class... Args> //also eligible and non-trivial C(Args&&... args) {} };
See also issue 1363.