Overload basic operators

[kvark]

Vector +- Vector
Point +- Vector
Matrix * Vector
Quat * Vector
...
probably a lot more, but we need to keep the behavior strictly obvious (i.e. not overloading Vector*Vector as a dot product)

[ghost]

This would be pretty useful. With this change would we want to remove mul_v ect?

The way the trait is designed we should be able do some nice operator overloading.

impl<S: Float> Mul<Mat4<S>, Mat4<S>> for Mat4<S>
{
   fn mul(&self, rhs: &Mat4<S>) -> Mat4<S> {self.mul_m(rhs)}
}

impl<S: Float> Mul<S, Mat4<S>> for Mat4<S>
{
   fn mul(&self, rhs: &S) -> Mat4<S> {self.mul_s(*rhs)}
}

impl<S: Float> Mul<Vec4<S>, Vec4<S>> for Mat4<S>
{
   fn mul(&self, rhs: &Vec4<S>) -> Vec4<S> {self.mul_v(rhs)}
}

Might be a bit ugly because we would likely have to do both directions A * B and B * A to avoid the user running into strange compiler errors.

[brendanzab]

My plan is for matrices for example to satisfy a Ring as outlined here: https://github.com/bjz/num-rs/blob/master/src/algebra.rs#L300-L348

This would require operator overloading.

[ghost]

So with the current Operator overloading we cannot implement more then one type. So we can do Mat4 * Mat4 but not Mat4 * Vec4 since it will be considered a conflicting implementation.

[brendanzab]

@csherratt yes, unfortunately. I think @pcwalton has plans to relax this restriction though.

[pnkfelix]

We can use double-dispatch to get overloading right now if we want it.

[pnkfelix]

To see what I mean by double-dispatch, see how I have ported the C++ tests for GLM's vec2 type over to Rust: glm-rs tests, ported from glm tests.

This workaround/pattern does not solve all cases of interest; in particular, one would need to implement TVec2AddAssignRHS for every scalar type individually; you cannot just do:

impl<T:Num> TVec2AddAssignRHS<T> for T { ... }

because then it would not be able to have that generic impl co-exist with the impl for TVec2<f32> etc. But these sorts of problems do not bother me too much; it is more important for a utility library like this tha one have reasonably nice syntax for the known variations of interest.

Also, there are other drawbacks one can note by reviewing the code. I am not 100% sure whether it is a bug or by design that I cannot write 1.0 alone but instead have to specify 1.0f32 in so many places. That might be fixable.

[brendanzab]

Cool! glm-rs looks rather neat.

I am still hesitant to do this until @nikomatsakis lands his trait reform. Talking to him last week he says he is almost done laying the groundwork for it. It's a bloody pain in the interim, but I would rather keep the traits clean for now rather than having to do a massive untangling of some complex double-dispatched thing in the future :(

Once trait reform lands, I would love to be able to do:

let vec4 = (vec2a, vec2b).to_vec4();
let vec3 = (1.3, vec2a).to_vec3();
let mat3 = (vec3, (vec2a, 3.0).to_vec3(), vec3).to_mat3();

[emberian]

I don't think operator overloads are worth pain.

[brendanzab]

@cmr sadface

[porglezomp]

@cmr as a user, I think operator overloads are absolutely worth the pain.

[brendanzab]

I'm not sure of the current status of rust-lang/rust#17657 (this is what we need - we are so close)

[kvark]

I believe the trait reform is done already? Unblocking.

[brendanzab]

I believe this is done!