February 2008 - Boost - lists.preview.boost.org

Proposed addition to the iterator library for iterating over all tuples.
by Alex Mendes da Costa 19 Jun '09

19 Jun '09

Hi folks: I quite often have to write code to do the following: Given N sequences, generate all the N-tuples s.t. the i'th element in each tuple is drawn from the i'th sequence. For example, if sequence S1 is { 1, 2, 3 } and sequence S2 is { 10, 20 }, I need to generate these tuples: (1, 10), (2, 10), (1, 20), (2, 20). I think this problem could be solved elegantly with a iterator similar to zip_iterator. I have some questions: (1) Is there already a way to do this in boost? (2) If not, would this be a worthwhile addition to the iterator library? (3) If so, could I contribute code for this, or must the existing library owners write it? (4) If so, how would I go about getting my code added? Most of the docs seem to be about submitting entire libraries, rather than extensions to existing libraries. Thanks, Alex

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manipulators for filtering_stream s
by Roland Schwarz 22 Jan '09

22 Jan '09

Surprisingly I was not able to find on the net code that would give me a smart way to indent a stream. So I wrote a little filter based on the boost iostreams library. My first attempt was: boost::iostreams::filtering_ostream out; indent_filter ind(4); out.push(ind); out.push(std::cout); However trying to control it via e.g. ind.in() ind.out() turns out to be problematic interface since, 1) out.push() takes a copy of ind 2) the interface ind.in() is suboptimal. With my attached example it is possible to: #include "indent.hpp" ... boost::iostreams::filtering_ostream out; indent_filter::push(out,2); out.push(std::cout); ... And use it like so: out << "Hello Filter!\n" << indent_in << "this is\n" << "indented\n" << indent_out << "until here\n" ; Which will result in output: Hello Filter! this is indented until here The state is stored in the ios base class of the stream, by way of the pword mechanism. Consequently the filter stream even may be downcast to a basic_ostream, and the indenter will still work. E.g. with out defined as above: ... foo(out); ... void foo(std::ostream& out) { out << indent_in << "out is a downcast filter_stream\n" << indent_out << "end of indentation\n" ; } If you want to try it out, you just need to include the header indent.hpp. If someone thinks the snippet is usable either as an example for the iostreams library or the filter streams manipulator idea is worth generalizing to make it usable for other filters too, I would be glad to hear from you. -- _________________________________________ _ _ | Roland Schwarz |_)(_ | aka. speedsnail | \__) | mailto:roland.schwarz@chello.at ________| http://www.blackspace.at

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[asio]: extending asio
by Andreas Pokorny 17 Aug '08

17 Aug '08

Hello, I would like to add more asynchronous event sources to asio, like: - input events for mouse, keyboard and joystick .. - window exposure, move, resize events in some generic form, - generic "quit" events - file alteration With directFB/X11/Unix/Linux most of that can be done directly through select or epoll. But since reading the message and parsing events is mostly done by a third party library, I would only need the reactor part for these. Is this possible with asio? According to msdn it seems to be possible to create so called event objects for direct input devices. I am no win32 expert so I do not know if one can combine that with completion ports? Regards Andreas Pokorny

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Mac OS universal builds: testers needed
by Mat Marcus 25 Jul '08

25 Jul '08

I've made a number of changes to my universal-binary supporting darwin.jam patch (shipping with the Adobe Source Library) in order to address the concerns raised by Rene and others at http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/989 : My current version supports invocations like: bjam architecture={combined,x86,power} link={shared,static} address-model={64,32} That is, universal builds are now supported, along with 64 bit builds. I'd like to ask for the help from a few volunteers who'd be willing to test it out, before I submit my patch for consideration. Anyone interested in helping me test it? If so, please contact me off list and I'll send you a couple of boost build files to replace. I still have a bit of cleanup to do. Specifically, on the mac, if a build doesn't specify an -arch parameter, the architecture (and perhaps the address model) of the host machine is used. I'm not really comfortable with the same folder path meaning different things on different machines. So, I plan to do something like the following in darwin.jam (in invented pseudo code) SWITCH(on result of /usr/bin/arch) { # host machine's architecture CASE(ppc) use <architecture>power/<address-model>32 as the default CASE(i386) use <architecture>x86/<address-model>32 as the default CASE(ppc64) use <architecture>power/<address-model>64 as the default CASE(x86_64) use <architecture>x86/<address-model>64 as the default DEFAULT error, unknown arch Thanks, Mat

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[dynamic_bitset] bug in to_ulong() in dynamic_bitset.hpp
by Boris Gubenko 05 Jul '08

05 Jul '08

A failure of dynamic_bitset library test dyn_bitset_unit_tests3 on Tru64/cxx and HP-UX/aCC revealed what appears to be a bug in <boost/dynamic_bitset/dynamic_bitset.hpp> introduced after Boost 1.34. The bug affects platforms where 'long' type is larger than 'int'. On both Tru64 and HP-UX, 'int' is a 32-bit type. On Tru64, 'long' is a 64-bit type. On HP-UX, 'long' is a 64-bit type in 64-bit data model (+DD64, which is how Boost testing is done on this platform) and 32-bit type otherwise. The test also fails on other platforms and while I cannot verify it, from the test output it apears that these platforms are affected by the same bug. What fails is the two testcases below in b.to_long() suite in boost/libs/dynamic_bitset/dyn_bitset_unit_tests3.cpp invoked with run_test_cases<unsigned int>() : { std::string str(ul_width - 1, '1'); boost::dynamic_bitset<Block> b(str); Tests::to_ulong(b); } { std::string ul_str(ul_width, '1'); boost::dynamic_bitset<Block> b(ul_str); Tests::to_ulong(b); } The code in <boost/libs/dynamic_bitset/bitset_test.hpp> converts dynamic_bitset<unsigned int> argument to unsigned long and checks that the appropriate bits in the result are set: result_type num = lhs.to_ulong(); // Be sure the number is right if (sz == 0) BOOST_CHECK(num == 0); else { for (std::size_t i = 0; i < sz; ++i) BOOST_CHECK(lhs[i] == (i < n ? nth_bit(num, i) : 0)); } This check fails for the bits in the upper half of the result. Here is an excerpt from dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>::to_ulong() function in <boost/dynamic_bitset/dynamic_bitset.hpp> in the trunk: result_type result = 0; for (size_type i = 0; i <= last_block; ++i) { assert((size_type)bits_per_block * i < (size_type)ulong_width); result |= (m_bits[i] << (bits_per_block * i)); } In our case, last_block = 1 and bits_per_block = 32. m_bits[i] has 'unsigned int' type. On the second loop iteration, a 32-bit integer is left-shifted by 32 bit positions. This triggers undefined behaviour. From 5.8 - Shift operators [expr.shift] : "The behavior is undefined if the right operand is [...] greater than or equal to the length in bits of the promoted left operand." With cxx and aCC, such shift results in zeroing of all bits of the left operand. Here is the code from <boost/dynamic_bitset/dynamic_bitset.hpp> in Boost 1.34 : unsigned long result = 0; for (size_type i = 0; i <= last_block; ++i) { assert((size_type)bits_per_block * i < (size_type)ulong_width); // gps unsigned long piece = m_bits[i]; result |= (piece << (bits_per_block * i)); } Here on the second loop iteration, a 64-bit long is left-shifted by 32 bit positions which yields the intended result. x.cpp below illustrates the difference between trunk and Boost 1.34: x.cpp ----- #include <stdio.h> #include <limits.h> int main() { unsigned int m_bits[] = { UINT_MAX, UINT_MAX }; unsigned int bits_per_block = sizeof(int) * CHAR_BIT; unsigned long result = 0; for(int i = 0; i <= 1 ; ++i) { #ifndef Boost_1_34 result |= (m_bits[i] << (bits_per_block * i)); #else unsigned long piece = m_bits[i]; result |= (piece << (bits_per_block * i)); #endif printf("result = %llx\n", result); } } cxxosf.zko.hp.com> cxx x.cpp && a.out result = ffffffff result = ffffffff cxxosf.zko.hp.com> cxx x.cpp -DBoost_1_34 && a.out result = ffffffff result = ffffffffffffffff cxxosf.zko.hp.com> Replacing result |= (m_bits[i] << (bits_per_block * i)); with unsigned long piece = m_bits[i]; result |= (piece << (bits_per_block * i)); on the trunk makes the test succeed: verified on Tru64/cxx and on HP-UX/aCC. In <http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2007/12/131126.php> I said: > It looks like a regression in boost/dynamic_bitset/dynamic_bitset.hpp > introduced in 1.35, but even in 1.34.1, it seems to me that the code in > to_ulong() is relying on undefined behaviour. What I was referring to is the code in 1.34 applying bitwise shift operator to a long operand. It would trigger an undefined behavior in C where "The operands shall have integer type", but it is legal in C++ where "The operands shall be of integral or enumeration type". So, I no longer claim that the code in 1.34 is relying on undefined behaviour. And the last thing: why the bug affects only platforms where 'long' type is larger than 'int'? Because if they are the same, as is the case on VMS or HP-UX in 32-bit data model, last_block = 0 and the single iteration of the for loop just assigns m_bits[0] to the result: the right operand of the shift operator is zero. To fix the problem, I suggest to replace the buggy code in <boost/dynamic_bitset/dynamic_bitset.hpp> in the trunk with that in 1.34. If there are no objections, I can do it. Thanks, Boris

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libs/dynamic_bitset/bitset_test unmerged changes?
by David Abrahams 05 Jul '08

05 Jul '08

Should these be in the trunk? Index: bitset_test.hpp =================================================================== --- bitset_test.hpp (revision 40672) +++ bitset_test.hpp (working copy) @@ -1006,7 +1006,8 @@ bool did_throw = false; try { - s << b; + static_cast<void> + (s << b); } #if defined BOOST_OLD_IOSTREAMS catch(...) { @@ -1081,7 +1082,8 @@ const std::ios::iostate except = is.exceptions(); bool has_stream_exceptions = true; try { - is >> b; + static_cast<void> + (is >> b); } catch(const std::ios::failure &) { did_throw = true; -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting http://www.boost-consulting.com

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[filesystem] Problems with wpath on Linux
by Alexei Alexandrov 06 Jun '08

06 Jun '08

Hi, I'm trying to use fs::wpath on Linux and I'm encountering some problems with internal conversion of wide strings to external representation. The problem can be demonstrated with the following code: #include <iostream> #include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp> #include <boost/filesystem/convenience.hpp> namespace fs = boost::filesystem; int main() { // Setting the global locale to be environment locale std::locale::global(std::locale("")); // Setting the wpath locale to be global fs::wpath_traits::imbue(std::locale()); fs::wpath mypath(L"/tmp/some/directory"); fs::create_directories(mypath); } To me, this work looks correct and should work. But it terminates with the following message: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'boost::filesystem::basic_filesystem_error< boost::filesystem::basic_path<std::basic_string<wchar_t, std::char_traits<wchar_t>, std::allocator<wchar_t> >, boost::filesystem::wpath_traits> >' what(): boost::filesystem::wpath::to_external conversion error Aborted At the same time, the following code works: #include <iostream> #include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp> #include <boost/filesystem/convenience.hpp> #include <libs/filesystem/src/utf8_codecvt_facet.hpp> namespace fs = boost::filesystem; int main() { fs::detail::utf8_codecvt_facet utf8_facet; std::locale loc( std::locale(), &utf8_facet ); fs::wpath_traits::imbue( loc ); fs::wpath mypath(L"/tmp/some/directory"); fs::create_directories(mypath); } which uses a UTF-8 facet from boost itself. The first example should work too - this is my understanding. Who is wrong here - me or boost?

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[boost] [boost][gacap]Is any interesting to "Generating All Combinations and Permutations"？
by Ben Bear 19 May '08

19 May '08

Hi, all `gacap' is template library of "Generating All Combinations and Permutations". It's supper of std::next_permutation() and std::prev_permutation(). There's a old discussion: "[boost] [tr2]Add Combination against std::permutation. HELP!" http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/09/110176.php I register a project in sf.net, http://gacap.wiki.sourceforge.net/. Some introductions are here. I put a .zip file in the vault, vault/Algorithms/gacap-0.0.4.zip. http://boost-consulting.com/vault/ It can also be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=209093 The package contains: gacap's header files doc/ example/ test/ doc/gacap.txt and doc/classes.txt are important introductions. I test it under three compilers, see doc/compile.txt. It's one year later. Thanks.

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Boost.Python: Build and Install with Python 2.4 and 2.5?
by Steve M. Robbins 01 May '08

01 May '08

Hi, I'm part of the Debian Boost packaging team, seeking some guidance on how to build and install Boost.Python so that it is usable with all Python versions shipped in Debian. Debian currently ships Python 2.4 and 2.5. When reading the following, keep in mind that Boost.Python is not a Python extension but, rather, a library that eases writing an extension in C++. So it is necessary that the compiled libraries be visible to be linked with user-written C++ code. One idea is to use a user-config.jam file containing using python : 2.4 : /usr ; using python : 2.5 : /usr ; Then run jam twice bjam variant= ... bjam variant= ... python python=2.5 This produces pairs of library files such as bin.v2/.../link-static/libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1.a bin.v2/.../link-static/python-2.5/libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1.a (and similar pairs for shared libraries and all other variants). The key item to note is that the two files have the same name. The python version, unlike the GCC version, is not embedded in the library name. So these files cannot both be installed into /usr/lib. The question, then, is how to distinguish them once installed? Should we: 1. Rename the resulting libraries to decorate them with the python version in addition to the gcc version? This could generate libboost_python-py24-gcc42-1_34_1.a libboost_python-py25-gcc42-1_34_1.a 2. Similar to above, but use bjam's --buildid option? This has the drawback that the build ID shows up differently than the GCC version decoration, e.g. libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1-py24.a libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1-py25.a 3. Put the libraries in different subdirectories, e.g. /usr/lib/python2.4/libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1.a /usr/lib/python2.5/libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1.a 4. Put the default version directly in /usr/lib and the others in subdirectories, e.g. /usr/lib/libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1.a /usr/lib/python2.5/libboost_python-gcc42-1_34_1.a The drawback to all these approaches is that client code has to be adjusted to build on Debian. Linking against Boost (for non-bjam projects) is already hard enough with the decorated library names that I fear making the situation worse. The attraction of #4 is that at least the variants for the default python version are found in a natural manner. This has some appeal to me, personally, but I worry that it is too easy to build an extension to python 2.5 and link in the wrong Boost.Python library. In contrast, the other options have the advantage that it forces the user to declare which version of Python is being used. I'd appreciate your thoughts. Have I overlooked a better solution? What are the other packagers of Boost.Python doing? In principle, it would be nice to have the Boost libraries named the same across distributions. Thanks, -Steve

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[Boost] Compile-time power of a run-time base
by Bruno Lalande 23 Mar '08

23 Mar '08

Hello, I have written for the need of a coworker a function template that computes the compile-time power of a base that is known only at runtime. The original need was just to avoid having to write things like "value*value*value*value*value". Before doing this, I've been searching for such a thing in the Boost documentation and mailing lists, but could only find discussions about an entierely compile-time version (compile-time exponent of compile-time base) intended for use in metaprograms. Is there any reason why the "semi-compile-time" version I describe here hasn't been discussed? Even though it can be viewed as a mere syntactic sugar, it can be very practical when it comes to write by hand a power with a big exponent. In case of interest, here is my code : template <int N> struct positive_power { template <typename T> static float result(T base) { return base*positive_power<N-1>::result(base); } }; template <> struct positive_power<0> { template <typename T> static float result(T) { return 1; } }; template <int N, bool> struct power_if_positive { template <typename T> static float result(T base) { return positive_power<N>::result(base); } }; template <int N> struct power_if_positive<N, false> { template <typename T> static float result(T base) { return 1/positive_power<-N>::result(base); } }; template <int N, typename T> float power(T base) { return power_if_positive < N, boost::mpl::greater_equal < boost::mpl::int_<N>, boost::mpl::int_<0> >::type::value >::result(base); } It supports positive, null and negative integer exponents. Some improvements can surely be done, like allowing to specify the desired return type. Examples of use : power<3>(myValue); power<0>(myValue); power<-5>(myValue); Thanks Bruno

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