"Terry G"
BTW, on the boost website, there are three versions of the FSM player example. Where?
Its in the Boost 1.33.1 download from the website, in boost/libs/mpl/example/fsm. I have the book CD too, of course. Which is "best"?
Oh, crud. We should have included a README file there, and I hope Aleksey will help me get this sorted out so I can write one. Here's what I think: player1.cpp - this is exactly what's covered in the book; in fact, it was auto-extracted from the examples as shown in the book. player2.cpp - this example demonstrates that the abstraction of the framework is complete by replacing its implementation with one that dispatches using O(1) table lookups, while still using the same code to describe the particular FSM. Look at this one if you want to see how to generate a static lookup table that's initialized at dynamic initialization time. player.cpp, state_machine.hpp - this is something Aleksey wrote. I'm not sure, but I think it predates the book, and is more sophisticated in some ways but probably should be treated as an advanced example.
I write stuff that I think should work, but the compiler issues tons of error messages.
Did you read the chapter on diagnostics and apply the advice therein?
Read, yes. Apply, mostly no. I use my text editor to process the verbiage, and I use two compilers. I've been reluctant to learn another tool, i.e. the filters.
Once you set up STLFilt, it just works, and it *really* eases the pain.
Are any of the Lints especially good with Boost/MPL?
Not that I know of.
Pitfalls like when to use typename.
Did you read the appendix on the typename and template keywords?
Read, yes. Understand, sort of. I can kind of tell when I've omitted the typename keyword, because that's what the compilers usually tell me.
Many compilers still don't tell you everyplace you're supposed to use it.
I never think to use it proactively.
That'll come with time. It's not an MPL-specific thing, of course. Anyone programming with templates will have to learn it eventually. -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com