Compiling Java Generics with Wildcards to C++ Templates

Question

I am trying to build a Java to C++ trans-compiler (i.e. Java code goes in, semantically \"equivalent\" (more or less) C++ code comes out).

Not considering garbage collec

Answer 1

If the goal is to represent Java semantics in C++, then do so in the most direct way. Do not use reinterpret_cast as its purpose is to defeat the native semantics of C++. (And doing so between high-level types almost always results in a program that is allowed to crash.)

You should be using reference counting, or a similar mechanism such as a custom garbage collector (although that sounds unlikely under the circumstances). So these objects will all go to the heap anyway.

Put the generic List object on the heap, and use a separate class to access that as a List or whatever. This way, the persistent object has the generic type that can handle any ill-formed means of accessing it that Java can express. The accessor class contains just a pointer, which you already have for reference counting (i.e. it subclasses the "native" reference, not an Object for the heap), and exposes the appropriately downcasted interface. You might even be able to generate the template for the accessor using the generics source code. If you really want to try.