I'm new to generic programming and finding the various concepts used in Boost quite confusing (named parameters, property maps, etc). Is there general documentation for the programming methods used in Boost? Perhaps a good book to buy?
On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:23:21 +1000, John Krajewski wrote
I'm new to generic programming and finding the various concepts used in Boost quite confusing (named parameters, property maps, etc). Is there general documentation for the programming methods used in Boost? Perhaps a good book to buy?
Hmm, there's a few books on various aspects of Boost now, but I don't think they are going to help in this case. Let's take these one by one: named parameters -- This is a library that allows a developer to write a function that instead of using positions, uses names to distinguish the parameters. See: http://www.boost.org/libs/parameter/doc/html/index.html Proprety Map -- Also a library designed to hold a set of properties -- mostly used in conjunction with Boost.Graph. http://www.boost.org/libs/property_map/property_map.html I think if you read the documentation for these libraries it will all be clearer. HTH, Jeff
Jeff Garland wrote:
On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:23:21 +1000, John Krajewski wrote
I'm new to generic programming and finding the various concepts used in Boost quite confusing (named parameters, property maps, etc). Is there general documentation for the programming methods used in Boost? Perhaps a good book to buy?
Hmm, there's a few books on various aspects of Boost now, but I don't think they are going to help in this case. Let's take these one by one:
named parameters -- This is a library that allows a developer to write a function that instead of using positions, uses names to distinguish the parameters. See:
http://www.boost.org/libs/parameter/doc/html/index.html
Proprety Map -- Also a library designed to hold a set of properties -- mostly used in conjunction with Boost.Graph.
It is actually a general purpose library for mapping a set of values of a particular type to another set of values of a particular type, where the types may be the same or different.
John Krajewski wrote:
I'm new to generic programming and finding the various concepts used in Boost quite confusing (named parameters, property maps, etc). Is there general documentation for the programming methods used in Boost? Perhaps a good book to buy?
<alert comment="boost newbie"> Welcome to the club of confused, disoriented newbies <g>. Several suggestions: * Start with a VERY basic library and try to absorb "The Boost Mentality". * Stair-step up to a somewhat more difficult library ... repeat as necessary * At this point, the Karlsson book, "Beyond the C++ standard library" might be helpful. For my purposes, the book had helpful regex examples (but regex is already relatively well documented, at least compared to several of the other Boost libraries I've wrestled with. Xpressive is very well documented, IMHO) * Adapt a mindset that learning Boost is critical to your career, so giving up is not an option. (and when your neurons align "just so", Boost is kinda fun <g>) * Also a humble attitude ... you are "rubbing shoulders" with some very smart people who are VERY busy, but passionate about Boost prevailing in the marketplace. * Keep notes to share with others to perhaps shorten their learning curve. I've found participants on this list to be VERY helpful and patient with newbies, but they won't write your code for you. </alert>
John Krajewski wrote:
I'm new to generic programming and finding the various concepts used in Boost quite confusing (named parameters, property maps, etc). Is there general documentation for the programming methods used in Boost? Perhaps a good book to buy?
Documentation is a HUGE challenge .... (pgo ... sorry) Our small city has an excellent public library that encourages patron requests. My experience is that the reference librarians aren't particularly computer literate (outside of their field of getting answers). They may very well welcome patron requests for very specialized technical books (but takes a while). The library tends to only approve recent publications ... (very reasonable) .... so I use "ILL - interlibrary loan" for older classics like Friedl's 1997 "Mastering Regular Expressions" ... if the shipping expenses won't be exorbinant. Our library now has these books because of my patron requests (and which I have in front of me): Karlsson, "Beyond the C++ Standard Library" Watts, "Beginning Regular Expressions" (but the libertarian in me is defensive about my pragmatic frugality <g>)
participants (4)
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Edward Diener -
Jeff Garland -
John Krajewski -
Lynn Allan