Using Eigen::Geometry module with custom scalar type

Question

II would like to use Eigen for linear algebra in a geometry project I am currently working on. It is a great library relatively small and easy to use and popular enough.

However, I would also like to use a custom defined "Double" class to be able to compare two floating point values in computer precision (something like the difference between the two must be smaller than a given precision). For my custom type, I have implemented most of the std::math c++11 functions and all operators (including unary -, conj, imag, abs2...). I did everything listed in these links :

http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/dox-devel/TopicCustomizingEigen.html

https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=26631

However, I still get compilation errors in Eigen Jacobi.h file, more specifically at line 340,341 which are :

x[i] =  c * xi + numext::conj(s) * yi;
y[i] = -s * xi + numext::conj(c) * yi;

I get the following error from the compiler (Vs 2012, Win32, Release and Debug Configuration)

eigen\src/Jacobi/Jacobi.h(341): error C3767: '*': candidate function(s) not accessible

operator* is define in my custom type for the following cases :

CustomType operator*(CustomType const &_other);
CustomType operator*(double const &_other);
double operator*(CustomType const &_other);

I tried to define conj in the following manners :

CustomType conj(CustomType const &_type){return _type;}
double conj(customType const &_type){return _type.get();}

I tried defining conj in Eigen::numext namespace as well as in my CustomType namespace with no success. Anyone has a hint, link, suggestion or know something Eigen needs I might have forgotten ?

Answer 1

Most likely because your code isn't const correct.

Your operator overloads should be:

CustomType operator*(CustomType const &_other) **const**;
CustomType operator*(double const &_other) **const**;
double operator*(CustomType const &_other) **const**;

If eigen has a const reference to an object of type CustomType it cannot call your operators because they are not const declared.

I.e.

void foo(const CustomType& x, const CustomType& y){
    x * y; // Compile error, cannot call non-const operator * on const object.
}

Answer 2

Not sure if this is the problem here, but you have to specialize Eigen::NumTraits<T>. See this manpage.

Also I don't understand how you can have two conj functions with the same arguments which return different types.