Add RFC for CTAD in blocked_nd_range

rfcs/proposed/blocked_nd_range_ctad/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,204 @@
+# Enabling CTAD for blocked_nd_range
+
+## Introduction
+
+`oneapi::tbb::blocked_nd_range` class was introduced as a representation for recursively divisible N-dimensional range for oneTBB parallel algorithms.
+This document proposes extending its API with the deduction guides since C++17 to allow dropping the explicit template arguments specification while
+creating the object if they can be determined using the arguments provided:
+
+```cpp
+oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<int> range1(0, 100);
+oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<int> range2(0, 200);
+oneapi::tbb::blocked_range<int> range3(0, 300);
+
+// Since 3 ranges of type int are provided, the type of nd_range
+// can be deduced as oneapi::tbb::blocked_nd_range<int, 3>
+oneapi::tbb::blocked_nd_range nd_range(range1, range2, range3);
+```
+
+## Proposal
+
+### Supported constructors
+
+The `oneapi::tbb::blocked_nd_range` supports the following set of constructors:
+
+```cpp
+template <typename T, unsigned int N>\
+class blocked_nd_range {
+public:
+    using value_type;
+    using dim_range_type = blocked_range<value_type>;
+    using size_type = typename dim_range_type::size_type;
+
+    blocked_nd_range(const dim_range_type& dim0, /*exactly N arguments of type const dim_range_type&*/); // [1]
+    blocked_nd_range(const value_type (&dim_size)[N], size_type grainsize = 1);                          // [2]
+    blocked_nd_range(blocked_nd_range& r, split);                                                        // [3]
+    blocked_nd_range(blocked_nd_range& r, proportional_split proportion);                                // [4]
+};
+```
+
+The constructor `[1]` is intended to create an n-dimensional interval by providing N one-dimensional ranges. Each element represents the
+dimension of the N-dimensional interval being constructed.
+It also allows to construct these one-dimensional intervals in-place from braced-inclosed initializer lists:
+
+```cpp
+// Passing blocked_range objects itself
+tbb::blocked_range<int> dim_range(0, 100);
+
+tbb::blocked_nd_range<int, 2> nd_range_1(dim_range, tbb::blocked_range<int>(0, 200));
+
+// Constructing in-place from braced-init-lists
+tbb::blocked_nd_range<int, 2> nd_range_2({0, 100}, {0, 200, 5});
+
+// Combined approach
+tbb::blocked_nd_range<int, 2> nd_range_3(dim_range, {0, 200, 5});
+```
+
+The constructor `[2]` is intended to create an interval by providing a C-array each element of which represents a size of the corresponding
+dimension of the interval being created. This constructor also allows to pass braced-init-list instead of the array from stack:
+
+```cpp
+// Passing array object itself
+int sizes[3] = {100, 200, 300};
+
+// Constructing the 3-dim range [0, 100), [0, 200), [0, 300)
+tbb::blocked_nd_range<int, 3> nd_range_1(sizes);
+
+// Using the grainsize - each dim range will have grainsize 5
+tbb::blocked_nd_range<int, 3> nd_range_2(sizes, 5);
+
+// Passing the braced-init-list
+tbb::blocked_nd_range<int, 3> nd_range_3({100, 200, 300});
+```
+
+In case of passing the template arguments explicitly, using a braced-init-list in both constructors `[1]` and `[2]` does not introduce any 
+ambiguity since if the number of braced-init lists provided is always equal to the number of dimensions of the range for constructor `[1]` and
+the number of elements in the braced-init list equal to the number of dimensions for constructor `[2]`. 
+
+Constructors `[3]` and `[4]` are intended to split the range into two parts. They are part of _Range_ Named Requirements and used internally in the
+implementation of oneTBB parallel algorithms.
+
+### Proposed deduction guides
+
+This paper proposes to add explicit deduction guides for `blocked_nd_range` class:
+
+```cpp
+// [g1]
+template <typename Value, typename... Values>
+blocked_nd_range(blocked_range<Value>, blocked_range<Values>...)
+-> blocked_nd_range<Value, 1 + sizeof...(Values)>;
+```
+
+This deduction guide corresponds to the constructor `[1]` for the case of passing _N_ `blocked_range` objects itself.
+It only participates in overload resolution if all of the types in `Values` are same as `Value`.
+
+To cover the case while blocked_ranges are passed as braced-init-lists, it is proposed to add a deduction guide taking 
+a set of C-array objects.
+
+There are currently two options how to define the deduction guide (or a function) taking the braced-init-list
+of any type- C-array and `std::initializer_list`. The issue with `std::initializer_list` is that it does not allow
+tracking the size in compile-time. 
+
+```cpp
+// [g2]
+template <typename Value, unsigned int... Ns>
+blocked_nd_range(const Value (&...)[Ns])
+-> blocked_nd_range<Value, sizeof...(Ns)>;
+```
+
+This deduction guide only participates in overload resolution if
+1. the number of C-arrays provided is more than 1 (`sizeof...(Ns) > 1`),
+2. Each C-array has the size 2 or 3.
+
+The first constraint is intended to resolve disambiguate between `[1]` and `[2]`.
+See [separate section](#ambiguity-while-passing-the-single-braced-init-list-of-size-2-or-3) for more details.
+
+The second constraint is intended to accept only the braced-init-lists that can be used to initialize the `blocked_range` object.
+Currently it supports the constructor with 2 parameters, taking _begin_ and _end_ of the interval, and the constructor with 3 parameters, taking
+additional _grainsize_ parameter.
+
+For the constructor `[2]`, the following deduction guide is proposed:
+
+```cpp
+// [g3]
+template <typename Value, unsigned int N>
+blocked_nd_range(const Value (&)[N])
+```
+
+This deduction guide only participates in overload resolution if `N` is not equal to neither 2 nor 3 to disambiguate between `[1]` and `[2]`.
+See [separate section](#ambiguity-while-passing-the-single-braced-init-list-of-size-2-or-3) for more details.
+
+For service constructors `[3]` and `[4]`, the following guides are proposed:
+
+```cpp
+// [g4]
+template <typename Value, unsigned int N>
+blocked_nd_range(blocked_nd_range<Value, N>, split)
+-> blocked_nd_range<Value, N>;
+
+// [g5]
+template <typename Value, unsigned int N>
+blocked_nd_range(blocked_nd_range<Value, N>, proportional_split)
+-> blocked_nd_range<Value, N>;
+```
+
+From the specification perspective, such a deduction guides can be generated as implicit deduction guides, in the same manner as copy and move constructors.
+But the current oneTBB implementation, these deduction guides are not generated implicitly, so the explicit guides are required.
+Guides `[g4]` and `[g5]` are not proposed to be a part of the spec, only a part of oneTBB implementation.
+
+## Open Questions
+
+### Ambiguity while passing the single braced-init-list of size 2 or 3
+
+While using the CTAD with `blocked_nd_range`, there is an ambiguity between two approaches while using a single braced-init-list of size 2 or 3:
+
+```cpp
+blocked_nd_range range1({10, 20});
+blocked_nd_range range2({10, 20, 5});
+```
+
+Since the template arguments for `blocked_nd_range` are not specified, there can be two possible resolutions:
+1. Be interpreted as one-dimensional range _[10, 20)_ (with grainsize 1 or 5). In this case it should be deduced as `blocked_nd_range<int, 1>` and 
+   constructed using the constructor `[1]`.
+2. Be interpreted as two (or three) dimensional range _[0, 10)_, _[0, 20)_ (and _[0, 5)_). In this case it should be deduced as `blocked_nd_range<int, 3>` 
+   and constructed using the constructor `[2]`. 
+
+Since it is unclear which resolution should be chosen, current proposal is not to support such use-case in CTAD and require the user to either explicitly
+specialize the template arguments, or to use array or `blocked_range` type itself to initialize the object.
+
+### Passing single C-array object of size 2 or 3
+
+Another interesting issue that should be resolved, is passing the single C-array object of size 2 or 3 to the constructor:
+
+```cpp
+int array[2] = {100, 200};
+tbb::blocked_nd_range range(array);
+```
+
+Since the `blocked_range` is not constructible from C-array and the braced-init-list is not used, the user expects the range to be deduced as
+`blocked_nd_range<int, 2>` and the constructor `[2]` to be used.
+
+If we add one more explicit deduction guide to support the code above, the single braced-init-list of size 2 or 3 would also match on this guide.
+
+There are the following options how this issue can be resolved:
+* Add a new deduction guide to support the code above. The downside of this approach is that it makes the ambiguity, discussed in the
+  [previous section](#ambiguity-while-passing-the-single-braced-init-list-of-size-2-or-3) to be resolved also and always result in 2 or 3-dimensional
+  range. If the user provided the single braced-init-list to have one-dimensional range, he would face the unexpected behavior without any diagnostics.
+* Document the code above as limitation and do not support it. The downside is  that the code above is considered valid, but    
+  cannot be supported because of the implementation of CTAD and current set of constructors.
+* Support the use-case above but do not support CTAD for braced-init-lists at all. The major downside is that the user would 
+  need to always specify the exact type `tbb::blocked_range` while using the braced-init-list construction.
+
+### Using the constructor `[1]` with "mixed" arguments
+
+There is a limitation of the deduction guides proposed if the constructor `[1]` is used with both arguments of exact `tbb::blocked_range` type
+and the braced-init-lists:
+
+```cpp
+tbb::blocked_range<int> dim_range(0, 100);
+tbb::blocked_nd_range nd_range(dim_range, {0, 200}, {0, 300}, dim_range);
+```
+
+These arguments would not match nether on the `[g1]` not `[g2]` and it is unclear how to define the deduction guide that covers this case.
+Current proposal is to keep this scenario a limitation for using the CTAD and always require using the consistent set of parameters - or 
+the set of braced-init-lists or the set of `tbb::blocked_range` objects.