The role of get_unit_value in boost ODEINT

Question

In the following Boost library code :

template<class T , class Enabler = void >
struct get_unit_value_impl
{
    static T value(const T &t)
    {
        return t;
    }
    typedef T result_type;
};

...

template<class T>
typename detail::get_unit_value_impl<T>::result_type get_unit_value(const T &t)
{
    return detail::get_unit_value_impl<T>::value(t);
}

The role get_unit_valueis incomprehensible to me. What does it do? we give it something and it returns the same value. Why would anyone wrap it in a structure? Does this do anything besides slowing down runtime?

This code is called from here :

template< class Fac1 = double >
struct rel_error
{
    const Fac1 m_eps_abs , m_eps_rel , m_a_x , m_a_dxdt;

    rel_error( Fac1 eps_abs , Fac1 eps_rel , Fac1 a_x , Fac1 a_dxdt )
    : m_eps_abs( eps_abs ) , m_eps_rel( eps_rel ) , m_a_x( a_x ) , m_a_dxdt( a_dxdt ) { }


    template< class T1 , class T2 , class T3 >
    void operator()( T3 &t3 , const T1 &t1 , const T2 &t2 ) const
    {
        using std::abs;
        set_unit_value( t3 , abs( get_unit_value( t3 ) ) / ( m_eps_abs + m_eps_rel * ( m_a_x * abs( get_unit_value( t1 ) ) + m_a_dxdt * abs( get_unit_value( t2 ) ) ) ) );
    }

    typedef void result_type;
};

Answer 1

You forgot to copy one of the specializations:

template<class T , class Enabler = void >
struct get_unit_value_impl
{
    static T value(const T &t)
    {
        return t;
    }
    typedef T result_type;
};

#ifndef __CUDACC__
template<class Unit , class T>
struct get_unit_value_impl< boost::units::quantity< Unit , T> >
{
    static T value( const boost::units::quantity< Unit , T> &t )
    {
        return t.value();
    }
    typedef T result_type;
};
#endif

get_unit_value() , , boost::unit::quantity<Unit, T> . , , t - int - :

int x = 7;
quantity<length> L = 2.0*meters;

get_unit_value(x); // 7
get_unit_value(L); // 2.0