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[Review] xpressive
by Thomas Witt 08 Sep '05

08 Sep '05

The review of Eric Niebler's xpressive library begins now and runs through Sunday, September 18. The library is available here: http://www.boost-consulting.com/vault/index.php?directory=Strings%20-% 20Text%20Processing Here is a short introduction that I shamelessly reassembled from the xpressive documentation. xpressive is an advanced, object-oriented regular expression template library for C++. Regular expressions can be written as strings that are parsed at run-time, or as expression templates that are parsed at compile-time. xpressive brings these two approaches seamlessly together and occupies a unique niche in the world of C++ text processing. With xpressive, you can choose to use it much as you would use Boost.Regex, representing regular expressions as strings. Or you can use it as you would use Spirit, writing your regexes as C+ + expressions, enjoying all the benefits of an embedded language dedicated to text manipulation. When writing your review, you may wish to consider the following questions: * What is your evaluation of the design? * What is your evaluation of the implementation? * What is your evaluation of the documentation? * What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? * Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems? * How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? * Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? And finally, every review should answer this question: * Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library? Be sure to say this explicitly so that your other comments don't obscure your overall opinion. Please send your reviews either to the Boost list or to me personally. The former is preferred, because it allows the community to consider your review as well. Thanks Thomas Witt Review Manager xpressive Thomas Witt witt(a)acm.org

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Boost 1.33.0 released
by Doug Gregor 18 Aug '05

18 Aug '05

Boost 1.33.0 ------------ New Libraries * Iostreams Library: Framework for defining streams, stream buffers and i/o filters, from Jonathan Turkanis. * Functional/Hash Library: A TR1 hash function object that can be extended to hash user defined types, from Daniel James. * Parameter Library: Write functions that accept arguments by name: especially useful when a function has more than one argument with a useful default value, since named arguments can be passed in any order. * Pointer Container Library: Containers for storing heap-allocated polymorphic objects to ease OO-programming, from Thorsten Ottosen. * Wave: Standards conformant implementation of the mandated C99/C++ preprocessor functionality packed behind an easy to use iterator interface, from Hartmut Kaiser. Updated Libraries * Assignment Library: Support for Pointer Container Library and new efficient functions ref_list_of() and cref_list_of() for generating anonymous ranges. * Bind Library: Bind expressions now support comparisons and negation. Example: bind(&X::name, _1) < bind(&X::name, _2). * Date-Time Library: o Added local time and time zone classes. o Added format-based Input/Output facets. o For a complete list of changes, see the library change history. * Graph Library: Introduced several new algorithms and improved existing algorithms: o Experimental Python bindings, from Doug Gregor and Indiana University. o floyd_warshall_all_pairs_shortest_paths, from Lauren Foutz and Scott Hill. o astar_search, from Kristopher Beevers and Jufeng Peng. o fruchterman_reingold_force_directed_layout, from Doug Gregor and Indiana University. o biconnected_components and articulation_points, from Jeremy Siek, Janusz Piwowarski, and Doug Gregor. o sequential_vertex_coloring has been updated, tested, and documented. o gursoy_atun_layout, from Jeremiah Willcock and Doug Gregor of Indiana University. o king_ordering, from D. Kevin McGrath of Indiana University. o cuthill_mckee ordering has been recast as an invocation of breadth_first_search and now supports graphs with multiple components. o dijkstra_shortest_paths now uses a relaxed heap as its priority queue, improving its complexity to O(V log V) and improving real-world performance for larger graphs. o read_graphviz now has a new, Spirit-based parser that works for all graph types and supports arbitrary properties on the graph, from Ron Garcia. The old, Bison-based GraphViz reader has been deprecated and will be removed in a future Boost release. write_graphviz also supports dynamic properties. o subgraph: get_property now refers to the subgraph property, not the root graph's property. o See the history for additional changes and bug fixes. * Multi-index Containers Library: o New hashed indices. o Added serialization support. o For a complete list of changes, see the library release notes. * Program Options Library: o Option descriptions are now printed with word wrapping. o Command line parser can bypass unregistered options, instead of throwing. o Removed support for "implicit" (optional) values. o New customization method 'command_line_parser::extra_style_parser'. Unlike 'additional_parser', allows the user to parse several tokens and return a vector of options, not just a single option. o Work with disabled exceptions. * Property Map Library: Introduced the dynamic properties class, which provides dynamically-typed access to a set of property maps. * Random Number Library: improved initialization for mersenne_twister, algorithm by Makoto Matsumoto and Takuji Nishimura, implemented for Boost by Jens Maurer. Note: All test vectors for mersenne_twisters constructed or seeded without parameters or with a single unsigned int parameter become invalid. * Range Library: Minor addition of convenience functions to iterator range like front(), back() and operator[](). * Regex Library: o Rewritten front end parser now supports (?imsx-imsx) constructs, plus lookbehind assertions and conditional expressions. o Thin wrapper classes improve integration with MFC/ATL code. o Full (optional) Unicode support via the ICU library. Refer to the regex history page for more information on these and other small changes. * Serialization Library: o DLL version. o Auto-linking. o Serialization of variants. o Improved seialization of shared pointers. * Signals Library: added slot blocking/unblocking, from Frantz Maerten. Huge improvements to signal invocation performance from Robert Zeh. Supported Compilers Boost is tested on a wide range of compilers and platforms. Since Boost libraries rely on modern C++ features not available in all compilers, not all Boost libraries will work with every compiler. The following compilers and platforms have been extensively tested with Boost, although many other compilers and platforms will work as well. For more information, see the regression test results. * Apple GCC 3.x on Mac OS X. * Borland C++ 5.6.4 on Windows. * GNU C++ 2.95.3 (with and without STLport), 3.2.x., 3.3.x, 3.4.x, 4.0.x on Windows, Linux and Solaris. * Intel C++ 8.1, 9.0 on Windows, Linux. * Metrowerks CodeWarrior 8.3, 9.4, 9.5 on Mac OS X and Windows. * Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (sp5, with and without STLport), 7.0, 7.1, 8.0 beta. Note: due to intermittent problems with Visual C++ 8.0 beta, and the presence of a variety of pre-release compiler builds, we are unable to guarantee compatibility until the final compiler is released. Acknowledgements Douglas Gregor managed this release. A great number of people contributed their time and expertise to make this release possible. Special thanks go to Aleksey Gurtovoy and Misha Bergal, who managed to keep the regression testing system working throughout the release process; David Abrahams, Beman Dawes, Aleksey Gurtovoy, Rene Rivera and Jonathan Turkanis for greatly improving the quality of this release; Rene Rivera for the new Boost web page design; and Zoltan "cad" Juhasz for the new Boost logo.

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[function_types] Review Result
by John Maddock 29 Jun '05

29 Jun '05

The Library ~~~~~~~~ Function Types library by Tobias Schwinger Available from the sandbox at: http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/ or the zip file is: http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&fi… This library provides a metaprogramming facility to classify, decompose and synthesize function-, function pointer-, function reference- and member function pointer types. For the purpose of this documentation, these types are collectively referred to as function types (this differs from the standard definition and redefines the term from a programmer's perspective to refer to the most common types that involve functions). The classes introduced by this library shall conform to the concepts of the Boost Metaprogramming library (MPL). The Function Types library enables the user to: * test an arbitrary type for being a function type of specified kind, * inspect properties of function types, * view and modify sub types of an encapsulated function type with MPL Sequence operations, and * synthesize function types. This library supports variadic functions and can be configured to support non-default calling conventions. Review Summary ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The function types review took place between the 6th and the 20th June 2005. There were 4 reviews, three reviewers made tentative "yes" votes. The review manager abstained. The reviewers took the view that the library was useful, but had issues with: * The naming and organisation of some components (particularly the tag types). * The scope of the test cases. * The documentation: in particular many reviewers had difficulty understanding the motivation behind the library, and felt that the documentation would put off many potential new users. Tobias and the reviewers alike have tried hard to correct this, but it's apparent that writing really clear documentation for this library is actually quite a difficult task (basically we've all been struggling to come up with really easy to understand terminology that can be applied here, what the library does isn't that hard to understand once you have "got it", but there is a lack of accepted terminology for what the library does which makes it hard to write documentation that will allow a newbe to "get it" in the first place). Proposed Changes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tobias has been very proactive in dealing with the issues that have come up during the review period, and has already published a list of proposed changes to address the reviewers concerns: http://lists.boost.org/boost/2005/06/29005.php http://lists.boost.org/boost/2005/06/29006.php http://lists.boost.org/boost/2005/06/29007.php Review Result ~~~~~~~~~~ There was some concern on the part of the review manager that not many reviews were submitted for this library. We don't have a hard and fast rule on how many positive reviews are enough to justify inclusion of a library, but there does seem to have been a decline in the number of reviews received for libraries recently. Partly this may be down to the fact that we have a release going on as well at present, also this library is probably mainly of interested to other library authors (who are busy with the release!). It's also possible that the problems some reviewers had in grasping all the concepts behind the library put some people off from contributing (this issue will be addressed by Tobias' proposed documentation changes however). So..... after some consultation with the other moderators (on how many reviews constitute "enough").... the result: the function types library is accepted into Boost, subject to a further mini-review to be conducted at a later time convenient to Tobias. The "mini review" will be conducted independently to the full review process; it's purpose will not be to reopen issues already addressed at this review, but to give reviewers a chance to: * Check the reorganised/renamed classes: there are enough changes here to make the library look-and-feel different even if the changes are actually largely cosmetic. It's important that we get this right, as meta-function naming can have a large (albeit subjective) impact on usability. * Check the revised documentation. As noted above, several people have had an attempt at revising this, and it's surprisingly hard to get right. There are enough changes coming here to make the new docs substantially different from those that the reviewers looked at. Regards, John Maddock [function types review manager]

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[function types] Formal Review begins today.
by John Maddock 06 Jun '05

06 Jun '05

The Formal Review of the Function Types Library begins today, and runs until 16th June 2005. Author: Tobias Schwinger tschwinger(a)neoscientists.org Available from the sandbox at: http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/ or the zip file is: http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&fi… This library provides a metaprogramming facility to classify, decompose and synthesize function-, function pointer-, function reference- and member function pointer types. For the purpose of this documentation, these types are collectively referred to as function types (this differs from the standard definition and redefines the term from a programmer's perspective to refer to the most common types that involve functions). The classes introduced by this library shall conform to the concepts of the Boost Metaprogramming library (MPL). The Function Types library enables the user to: * test an arbitrary type for being a function type of specified kind, * inspect properties of function types, * view and modify sub types of an encapsulated function type with MPL Sequence operations, and * synthesize function types. This library supports variadic functions and can be configured to support non-default calling conventions. (The following is taken from : http://www.boost.org/more/formal_review_process.htm ) Here are some questions you might want to answer in your review: What is your evaluation of the design? What is your evaluation of the implementation? What is your evaluation of the documentation? What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems? How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? And finally, every review should answer this question: Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library? Be sure to say this explicitly so that your other comments don't obscure your overall opinion. John Maddock (Function Types review manager).

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Typeo:f Review result
by Andy Little 01 Jun '05

01 Jun '05

I am pleased to formally announce that the Typeof library has been accepted into Boost. There were 3 reviews, all in favour of accepting the library. Thanks to Arkadiy Vertleyb and Peder Holt for all their work. Andy Little Review Manager

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Hello
by dave＠boost-consulting.com 25 May '05

25 May '05

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Review result for Singleton library
by Pavel Vozenilek 23 May '05

23 May '05

Singleton library written by Jason Hise was NOT accepted in Boost. There were only few reviews, far less than expected but they uncovered several weknesses in current design and implementation. Jason had confirmed he will work on the library so I believe these problems will get resolved. Thanks to those who found time to do review or tell their experience. Pavel as review manager

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Formal Review: Typeof
by Andy Little 21 May '05

21 May '05

The formal review of Arkadiy Vertleyb and Peder Holt's Typeof library began on May 20th 2005.(Apologies for not posting this on boost-announce sooner).The review period will continue until the 30th of May. The proposed Typeof library emulates the functionality of the non-standard 'typeof' operator, and incomplete implementations of decltype and the proposed 'auto' declarator , described in http://www.osl.iu.edu/~jajarvi/publications/papers/decltype_n1478.pdf. It is commonly acknowledged that this type of functionality is sorely needed and should be standardardised in the language. For compliant compilers the library requires some help in the form of registration macros but, because use of typeof is by its nature most likely in generic libraries, it is expected that this can often be done by the library author rather than the user. In some cases the compilers capabilities (by means of extensions and even compiler bugs)have been used to remove the need for registration. However, for portability and in order to test emulation mode on the compilers where it is available but not used by default (VC7.1, GCC etc), #define BOOST_TYPEOF_COMPLIANT [see note *1*]. Testing the emulation is useful, even on compilers that provide a better option, to get a rounded view of the library and its capabilities. I hope you will find time to write a review of the library, which is available at: http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/ , typeof.zip The system has been tested with the following compilers: MSVC 6.5/7.0/7.1/8.0; [see note *1* regarding VC7.0 and VC6.5] GCC 3.4.2 (The following is a quote from : http://www.boost.org/more/formal_review_process.htm ) Here are some questions you might want to answer in your review: What is your evaluation of the design? What is your evaluation of the implementation? What is your evaluation of the documentation? What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems? How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? And finally, every review should answer this question: Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library? Be sure to say this explicitly so that your other comments don't obscure your overall opinion. Andy Little Typeof review manager notes: *1* MSVC6.5 and VC7.0 are not supported by the BOOST_TYPEOF_COMPLIANT macro

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Hello
by jens.maurer＠gmx.net 20 May '05

20 May '05

The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment.

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[Formal review] Singleton library
by Pavel Vozenilek 04 May '05

04 May '05

The formal review of Singleton library written by Jason Hise starts today, May 5th, and lasts 10 days. The library is available at http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/index.php?&direction=0&order=&di… The singleton documentation can be browsed online at http://www.ezequal.com/chaos/docs/html/singleton/ Singleton is feature rich library: - ensuring single instance of a class and global access point to this instance - with policies specifying: - when the instance gets created (manually, immediatelly, when first used, ...) - how is the instance created (by new, malloc, in static memory, ...) - when the instance gets destroyed (never, by priority, after another singleton, ...) Parametrized singleton called Multiton is provided: City::pointer p1("Chicago"); City::pointer p2("Brussels"); will create two different "singletons" of the same type. Another feature is ability to register resources (like shared pointer) who will get destroyed in controlled order, when the application exits. Not yet implemented features are: - MT safety - self-destroying singleton with timeout - bjam compatible tests The library is known to work with several newer compilers, VC7.1 among them. Help with other compilers is welcomed. When submitting reviews, please state explicitly whether or not you believe that the library should be accepted into Boost. For more information on the Boost formal review process, please see http://www.boost.org/more/formal_review_process.htm. /Pavel

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