Re: [Boost-users] Overloading boost::for_each()

On Sat, 28 Aug 2010, Dave Abrahams wrote:

On Aug 28, 2010, at 3:58 PM, Jeremiah Willcock wrote:

...

There are several container types (such as typical deque implementations, if you have access to their internals) that can have for_each() implemented for them in a way that is faster than using iterators and a generic for_each() function. Is there a way to take advantage of that in Boost.Range, such as by overloading boost::for_each()? Is there some kind of Iterable concept that doesn't require actual iterators or allows them to be slow?

I presume you're familiar with http://lafstern.org/matt/segmented.pdf?

I had heard of segmented iterators but hadn't looked at them in detail, so thanks for the link. I'm not sure I want something that's just two-level and still based on iterators, though; one case I was thinking of is compressed data that truly has a linear sequence but it might be faster to have the decompressor control the program's control flow rather than having the algorithm do it (of course, that isn't as general as iterators, but works for some algorithms). -- Jeremiah Willcock