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

[1.35.0] Keeping home pages in sync
by Beman Dawes 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

We've now got two home pages - one for the web site and one for the boost-root tree. We need to figure out how to keep the two in sync without totally duplication of effort. The problem is currently compounded by the boost-root tree home page using HTML and the web site home page using PHP. Every developer needs to be able to update "news" content on both home pages by adding entries in a single place, using a technology that does not involve learning a new markup language or installing a new tool chain. Updating content has to be stone simple, the way it was when we had a single web page written in HTML. Having a beautiful home page is useless if there is no practical way to keep content up-to-date. --Beman

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Building libraries with no mangling
by Robert Dailey 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

Hi, I've been doing a lot of Googling on this issue and I haven't found a resolution. How can I prevent the boost build process from mangling the library names? I invoke bjam as follows: bjam --toolset=msvc debug stage I would like normal names for the libraries, like: boost_signals.lib and boost_signals.dll. Thanks.

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First Call for Papers -- GPCE'08
by Emir Pasalic 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

Call for Papers Seventh International Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering (GPCE 2008) October 19-23, 2008 Nashville, Tennessee (co-located with OOPSLA 2008) http://www.gpce.org Important Dates: * Submission of abstracts: May 12, 2008 * Submission: May 19, 2008 * Notification: June 30, 2008 * Tutorial and workshop proposals: March 30, 2008 * Tutorial and workshop notification: April 5, 2008 Scope Generative and component approaches are revolutionizing software development similar to how automation and components revolutionized manufacturing. Generative Programming (developing programs that synthesize other programs), Component Engineering (raising the level of modularization and analysis in application design), and Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) (elevating program specifications to compact domain-specific notations that are easier to write, maintain, and analyze) are key technologies for automating program development. The International Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering provides a venue for researchers and practitioners interested in techniques for enhancing the productivity, quality, and time-to-market in software development that stems from deploying components and automating program generation. In addition to exploring cutting-edge techniques for developing generative and component-based software, our goal is to foster further cross-fertilization between the software engineering research community and the programming languages community. Submissions Research papers: 10 pages in SIGPLAN proceedings style (sigplanconf.cls) reporting original research results that contribute to scientific knowledge in the areas listed below (the PC chair can advise on appropriateness). Experience reports: 2 to 4 pages in length in SIGPLAN proceedings style (sigplanconf.cls). We encourage experience reports that provide concrete evidence with regards to the efficacy of generative technologies in industrial applications. Topics GPCE seeks contributions in software engineering and in programming languages related (but not limited) to: * Generative programming o Reuse, meta-programming, partial evaluation, multi-stage and multi-level languages, step-wise refinement, and generic programming o Semantics, type systems, symbolic computation, linking and explicit substitution, in-lining and macros, templates, and program transformation o Runtime code generation, compilation, active libraries, synthesis from specifications, development methods, generation of non-code artifacts, formal methods, and reflection * Generative techniques for o Product-line architectures o Distributed, real-time and embedded systems o Model-driven development and architecture o Resource bounded/safety critical systems. * Component-based software engineering o Reuse, distributed platforms and middleware, distributed systems, evolution, patterns, development methods, deployment and configuration techniques, and formal methods * Integration of generative and component-based approaches * Domain engineering and domain analysis o Domain-specific languages including visual and UML-based DSLs * Separation of concerns o Aspect-oriented and feature-oriented programming, o Intentional programming and multi-dimensional separation of concerns * Industrial applications of the above Experience reports on applications of these techniques to real-world problems are especially encouraged, as are research papers that relate ideas and concepts from several of these topics, or bridge the gap between theory and practice. The program chair is happy to advise on the appropriateness of a particular subject. Submissions must adhere to SIGPLAN's republication policy. Please contact the program chair if you have any questions about how this policy applies to your paper (gpce2008 at gpce.org) Organizers General Chair: Yannis Smaragdakis (University of Oregon) Program Chair: Jeremy Siek (University of Colorado at Boulder) Satellite Chair: Ralf Lammel (Univ. Koblenz-Landau) Publicity Chair: Emir Pasalic (LogicBlox, Inc.) Program Committee David Abrahams (Boost Consulting) Uwe Assmann (Technische Universitat, Dresden) Ira Baxter (Semantic Designs, USA) Martin Bravenboer (Delft Univ. of Tech., The Netherlands) Jacques Carette (McMaster University, Canada) Shigeru Chiba (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) William R. Cook (University of Texas at Austin, USA) Lidia Fuentes (University of Malaga, Spain) Yossi Gil (The Technion, Israel) Aniruddha Gokhale (Vanderbilt University, USA) Mark Grechanik (Accenture Technology Labs, USA) Stanislaw Jarzabek (National University of Singapore) Jaakko Jarvi (Texas A&M Unviersity, USA) Julie Lawall (DIKU, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Christian Lengauer (University of Passau, Germany) Matthew Marcus (Adobe Systems Inc., USA) Anne-Francoise Le Meur (University of Lille 1, France) Sibylle Schupp (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) Peter Sestoft (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Chung-chieh Shan (Rutgers University, USA) Eric Van Wyk (University of Minnesota, USA)

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[iostreams doc] Menu not working
by David Abrahams 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

And there's no menu control for me (Firefox 2.0.0.14 on Ubuntu) Firebug reports "too much recursion." -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting http://boost-consulting.com

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Dead Link: io state savers documentation
by David Abrahams 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

http://www.boost.org/libs/io/doc/index.html links to http://www.boost.org/libs/io/doc/ios_state.html, which doesn't seem to exist. -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting http://boost-consulting.com

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optional and typed_in_place_factory
by James Pelletier 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

I've run into problems using the typed_in_place_factory and optional objects. First, I ran into a problem where I initialized a typed_in_place_factory with a temporary and then used the factory after the temporary was destroyed. After a few hours of hair pulling, I figured out that the factory currently only stores references. This was a surprise because I have been using boost::bind for quite a while and it holds copies of the arguments. I propose that the typed_in_place_factory hold copies of the data as well. Users can pass boost::ref objects for types that aren't copyable with the added benefit that they explicitly know they need to keep the referenced object alive while the factory exists. Consistency between the behavior of boost::bind and the typed_in_place_factory is desirable because of their similar nature. Second, I've noticed that operator= for the optional takes a factory object by value. It seems like taking the argument by const reference would be desirable to prevent copying of the factory (which could be expensive if the changes to the typed_in_place_factory mentioned previously are accepted). Also, the conversion constructor takes the factory by const reference, so this may have just been a simple oversight. Below is a patch based on HEAD as of 2007-01-29. -------------------------------------------------------------- Index: boost/optional/optional.hpp =================================================================== RCS file: /cvsroot/boost/boost/boost/optional/optional.hpp,v retrieving revision 1.12 diff -p -r1.12 optional.hpp *** boost/optional/optional.hpp 26 Jun 2006 18:01:36 -0000 1.12 --- boost/optional/optional.hpp 29 Jan 2008 18:52:11 -0000 *************** class optional : public optional_detail: *** 510,516 **** // Assigns from an expression. See corresponding constructor. // Basic Guarantee: If the resolved T ctor throws, this is left UNINITIALIZED template<class Expr> ! optional& operator= ( Expr expr ) { this->assign_expr(expr,&expr); return *this ; --- 510,516 ---- // Assigns from an expression. See corresponding constructor. // Basic Guarantee: If the resolved T ctor throws, this is left UNINITIALIZED template<class Expr> ! optional& operator= ( Expr const& expr ) { this->assign_expr(expr,&expr); return *this ; Index: boost/utility/detail/in_place_factory_prefix.hpp =================================================================== RCS file: /cvsroot/boost/boost/boost/utility/detail/in_place_factory_prefix.hpp,v retrieving revision 1.2 diff -p -r1.2 in_place_factory_prefix.hpp *** boost/utility/detail/in_place_factory_prefix.hpp 26 Jun 2007 23:07:25 -0000 1.2 --- boost/utility/detail/in_place_factory_prefix.hpp 29 Jan 2008 18:52:13 -0000 *************** *** 26,32 **** #include <boost/preprocessor/repetition/enum_trailing_params.hpp> #define BOOST_DEFINE_INPLACE_FACTORY_CLASS_MEMBER_INIT(z,n,_) BOOST_PP_CAT(m_a,n) BOOST_PP_LPAREN() BOOST_PP_CAT(a,n) BOOST_PP_RPAREN() ! #define BOOST_DEFINE_INPLACE_FACTORY_CLASS_MEMBER_DECL(z,n,_) BOOST_PP_CAT(A,n) const& BOOST_PP_CAT(m_a,n); #define BOOST_MAX_INPLACE_FACTORY_ARITY 10 --- 26,32 ---- #include <boost/preprocessor/repetition/enum_trailing_params.hpp> #define BOOST_DEFINE_INPLACE_FACTORY_CLASS_MEMBER_INIT(z,n,_) BOOST_PP_CAT(m_a,n) BOOST_PP_LPAREN() BOOST_PP_CAT(a,n) BOOST_PP_RPAREN() ! #define BOOST_DEFINE_INPLACE_FACTORY_CLASS_MEMBER_DECL(z,n,_) BOOST_PP_CAT(A,n) BOOST_PP_CAT(m_a,n); #define BOOST_MAX_INPLACE_FACTORY_ARITY 10

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Trac open bugs - by assignee
by Marshall Clow 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

[ 209 open bugs today, 212 yesterday ] If you are maintaining a library, and have not logged into the trac system at <http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/>, please do so ASAP. Until you do that, no tickets can be assigned to you, and will remain under "None". Instructions on working with tickets can be found at: <http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/TicketWorkflow> and a mapping of user names to "real names" can be found at: <http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/report/16> Bug summary 23 djowel 19 az_sw_dude 13 grafik 12 vladimir_prus 12 doug_gregor 12 dgregor 12 dave 11 agurtovoy 10 no-maintainer 9 bemandawes 7 jsiek 7 anthonyw 6 johnmaddock 5 witt 5 igaztanaga 4 turkanis 3 ebf 3 danielw 3 danieljames 2 t_schwinger 2 shammah 2 rogeeff 2 ramey 2 pavol_droba 2 nasonov 2 kaalus 2 jmaurer 2 hkaiser 2 aaron_windsor 2 None 1 urzuga 1 speedsnail 1 samuel_krempp 1 pdimov 1 nesotto 1 matias 1 marshall 1 hljin 1 garcia 1 eric_niebler 1 dlwalker None 1493 SVN files making it through to install None 1644 Boost.Test missing documentation file BOOST_CHECK_CLOSE_FRACTION.html aaron_windsor 1622 Adjacency list needs to handle self-edges correctly aaron_windsor 778 top-level configure is broken agurtovoy 1001 gcc 4.1.2 segfaults on mpl/test/apply.cpp agurtovoy 1051 MPL header ordering triggers bug agurtovoy 1099 unable to iterate through a "non-explicitly-declared" mpl::set agurtovoy 1215 Boost 1.34.1_ mpl: Wrong workaround detection using MinGW32 (or.hpp_ line #33) agurtovoy 1317 has_xxx randomly broken in msvc agurtovoy 1469 [mpl] nested typedef of set has two different meanings agurtovoy 1476 always<> is not nullary. agurtovoy 1528 g++ 4.3.0 reports error because of redeclaration of next agurtovoy 1549 Boost.MPL: 'index_of' algorithm is not documented agurtovoy 1568 duplicate include guards agurtovoy 588 mpl::remove compile error with gcc 4.1.0 anthonyw 1154 tss destruction segfaults in conjunction with dlopen/dlclose anthonyw 1168 [thread] tss crashes randomly anthonyw 1268 xtime_cmp changes to deal with overflow were reverted anthonyw 1470 Boost.Thread: Compilation errors with non-__cdecl calling convention anthonyw 1640 [Thread] warnings from VC9 + warning level 4 anthonyw 876 xtime documentation incomplete anthonyw 881 errors when build with Apache stdcxx az_sw_dude 1028 typo in boost header: date_time/time_defs.hpp az_sw_dude 1078 from_iso_string cannot read the output from to_iso_string az_sw_dude 1098 Urgent libboost-date-time1.33.1 : bugs on ia64 ? az_sw_dude 1147 date_time library contains global #define ERROR az_sw_dude 1160 warning: month_format shadows a member of this az_sw_dude 1162 warning: ticks shadows a member of this az_sw_dude 1289 posix_time::time_facet forgets to pass a_ref argument to base class az_sw_dude 1299 change in typedef stringstream_type in format_date_parser.hpp causing compilation error az_sw_dude 1306 invalid docbook in date_period.xml az_sw_dude 1384 Linking problem with date_time library on Visual C++ 2008 Express az_sw_dude 1386 date_time documentation Jamfile breaks building of boost docs az_sw_dude 1524 format_date_parser.hpp(221) : cannot convert parameter 1 az_sw_dude 1574 operator<< for boost::posix_time::ptime ignores ostream flags az_sw_dude 287 wrong usage of ios_base::narrow az_sw_dude 316 date_time type conversion warning az_sw_dude 604 from_ftime incorrectly processes FILETIME filled with zeros az_sw_dude 642 operator<< for gregorian::date_duration not found az_sw_dude 889 Insane Dependencies az_sw_dude 890 date_time library supports only the current dst rule bemandawes 1378 filesystem path invalid name for hidden files (LINUX) bemandawes 1389 filesystem::ostream << boost::format generates operator ambigious error (in MSVC++) bemandawes 1458 Darwin Tiger throws std::runtime_error: locale::facet::_S_create_c_locale name not valid bemandawes 1578 bug in readdir_r_simulator() in a multi-threaded environment bemandawes 1583 Serious flaw in boost::filesystem filename handling (opensuse) bemandawes 1589 [filesystem] 'mbstate_t' : is not a member of 'std' bemandawes 1606 filesystem/src/exception.cpp doesn't build with gcc bemandawes 1613 Link Errors against file_system on OS X with Intel Version 10.1 C++ compilers bemandawes 752 directory_iterator doesn't work with catch danieljames 1554 When BOOST_HASH_NO_EXTENSIONS is defined hash doesn't support new string types. danieljames 1555 When BOOST_HASH_NO_EXTENSIONS is defined hash doesn't support boost::system::error_code danieljames 1573 Broken URL in copyright boiler-plate danielw 1044 Argument pack inaccessable in a functions return type danielw 1054 Parameter takes an "infinite" amount of time to compile with the Intel compiler. danielw 1097 keyword.hpp generates many warnings C4180: qualifier applied to function type has no meaning; ignored dave 1010 linking boost.python on freebsd dave 1019 iterator_facade::pointer should be the return type of operator-> (DR 445) dave 1085 Python rules for compiling in Mac OS X dave 1179 [boost.python] can not export a union in VC2005sp1 dave 1181 [boost.python] can modify enum value dave 1387 Review / update docs to reflect changes dave 1460 Python classes with multiple bases are convertible only to the first class in the lists dave 1482 boost::python::throw_error_already_set should be marked noreturn dave 1516 [python] Failing VC9 regression tests dave 1599 [python] '_set_se_translator': identifier not found dave 865 Use of C++0x keyword as identifier dave 910 gcc strict-aliasing problems with python dgregor 1164 Floyd Warshall broken with unsigned edge weights dgregor 1192 [boostbook] problem when two files have the same name dgregor 1199 configure doesn't work with path containing whitespaces (MacOS X) dgregor 1310 [result_of] const-qualified function pointer doesn't work dgregor 1326 Unable to check graph isomorphism using LEDA adapter dgregor 1391 dominator_tree_test on Borland/CodeGear outputs overly long line dgregor 1394 Translate libs/graph/build/python/Jamfile to BBv2 dgregor 1395 Write Tests for Python Bindings dgregor 1630 gcc-4.3: adjacency_list.hpp includes deprecated header dgregor 556 Bundled graph properties dgregor 732 Johnson All-Pairs needs better "no path" information dgregor 736 Const correctness violation djowel 1170 Emit Warnings instead of # symbols in the syntax highlighter djowel 1171 Quickbook title output djowel 1172 non-utf djowel 1176 Space after inline code djowel 1206 Escaping from within code? djowel 1273 CR+LF newlines in position_iterator djowel 1276 spirit problem with _GLIBCXX_DEBUG djowel 1277 Closing section like [pre with } causes Quickbok to crash djowel 1280 sections in imported source files get put inside <para> elements in docbook output djowel 1281 Quickbook produces invalid BoostBook/DocBook XML djowel 1324 tuple should have a swap() that operates element-by-element djowel 1396 wrong result_of invocation around transform_view djowel 1436 [quickbook] inline code inside headings djowel 1484 Quickbook produces illegal docbook for some docinfo fields. djowel 1500 [Spirit/Phoenix] C4512 Compiler warnings from VC8 djowel 1570 Some boost headers aren't ready for gcc 4.3 djowel 1600 duplicate include guard djowel 1601 distane of boost::tuple djowel 1607 Tuple Library Documentation Changes djowel 1610 [MSVC/STLport] [tree/common.hpp] Standard library requirements violation(incomplete type as vector parameter) djowel 1614 vector workaround needed for MSVC9 djowel 1617 spirit gcc-4.3 fix djowel 1619 [Fusion] C4512 warnings from VC9 (Visual Studio 2008) dlwalker 613 boost/crc.hpp uses non-standard conforming syntax doug_gregor 1021 [Graph][reverse_graph] Problem using reverse_graph adapter with an adapted user defined graph doug_gregor 1076 compile error: disconnecting struct with operator()() doesn't work in VS2005 SP1 doug_gregor 375 LEDA graph adaptors do not handle hidden nodes properly doug_gregor 402 random_vertex/random_edge are unnecessarily inefficient doug_gregor 403 Document copy_component doug_gregor 447 reverse_graph and constness of property maps doug_gregor 708 Dijkstra no_init version should not require VertexListGraph doug_gregor 733 Numbered headers don't work with "preferred" syntax doug_gregor 735 Fruchterman-Reingold grid performance can be improved doug_gregor 738 Memory leaks with signal::connect? doug_gregor 829 Implicit graph not implement doug_gregor 852 Problem with Boost and GCC 4.1 ebf 1507 [variant] C4512 warnings from VC8.0 ebf 1548 [variant][docs]typo: formal arg_ operand_ should be v in times_two arglist ebf 993 Variant should use least common multiple of alignments_ rather than maximum eric_niebler 1631 [accumulators] compiler warnings with VC9 + warning level 4 garcia 1581 Boost.MultiArray: Resizing bug if the index is not 0-based grafik 1041 Cygwin requires PATH setting. grafik 1322 trac rejects patch attachment as spam grafik 1417 Regresson tests hang in Darwin (Tiger) grafik 1430 Regression fails under Cygwin grafik 1433 Trac's spam detection rejects too many valid messages grafik 1512 Broken link to vacpp in bjam docs. grafik 1513 Broken link to bcpp in bjam docs. grafik 1571 boost bugtracker displays a patch incorrectly grafik 1576 cannot read non-ASCII output messages grafik 1577 Some commands don't work because hStdInput == 0 grafik 616 Boost Jam_ and non english directorys grafik 959 linking fails when Boost is compiled with STLport 5.1.* on Linux (names mismatch) grafik 986 Problem building Python modules on boost 1.34.0 hkaiser 1079 boost-1.34.0 fails to compile. concept checks not satisfied. hkaiser 1603 Compile Error: cpp_expression_value.hpp - is_int_ is_bool_ is_uint undeclared hljin 1522 bit_range friend decl in bit_aligned_pixel_reference.hpp needs to be fully qualified for gcc 4.3 mainline igaztanaga 1080 boost::interprocess win32 global file mapping issue igaztanaga 1210 interprocess::barrier hangs during second use under linux (boost 1.33.1) igaztanaga 1390 Interpocess: managed shared memory failing completely under OS X igaztanaga 1634 boost::interprocess::vector cannot contain volatile int igaztanaga 1635 Incomplete include guard in boost/intrusive jmaurer 351 Diff in state of mersenne_twister gen between GCC3.41 & CW9 jmaurer 599 uniform_01 copies engine instead of using a reference johnmaddock 1081 Empty string rejected as perl-style regex johnmaddock 1314 Using SSE-intrinsics in VC8 causes static assert in type_with_alignment.hpp johnmaddock 1411 Fix BOOST_PARTIAL_SPECIALIZATION_EXPLICT_ARGS johnmaddock 1446 POSIX API doesn't use C locale johnmaddock 1451 error: use of C99 long long integer constant johnmaddock 1626 [type_traits] "bad_alloc is not a member of std" in has_virtual_destructor_test.cpp jsiek 1531 segfault in dynamic_bitset::reference assign operator jsiek 1540 Poisson distribution very slow for large mean (and may also overflow). jsiek 575 Calling subgraph::global_to_local on a root graph jsiek 636 strange compiling problem for transitive_closure jsiek 815 remove_edge core dumps on self-circle jsiek 875 No iterator based constructor for adjacency_matrix jsiek 900 graphml reader namespace handling is broken kaalus 1184 property_tree assignment (operator) bug kaalus 1604 property_tree xml parser doesn't compile with gcc marshall 1252 [pool] severe overhead with unaligned sizes. matias 1406 Understanding the Tables outdated nasonov 1220 lexical_cast requires RTTI nasonov 754 boost::any - typeid comparison across shared boundaries nesotto 1629 range/iterator_range.hpp bug no-maintainer 1068 Mersenne twister disables streaming for Visual C++ no-maintainer 1222 lambda::ret<T> should declare result_type. no-maintainer 1270 uniform_smallint doesn't compile with lagged_fibonacci random number generators no-maintainer 1515 [lambda] C4512 warnings from VC8.0 no-maintainer 1544 uniform_01 w/ref template param causes ref to ref error no-maintainer 1546 Method boost::random::uniform_int::operator()(engine_ value) is missing no-maintainer 1572 [lambda] smart pointer const-ness affects its contents no-maintainer 1632 Default Interval rounding policies incomplete no-maintainer 781 Lambda: (_1 + "y")(string("x")) Doesn't Compile no-maintainer 819 uniform_int<> with type's maximum availaible range error pavol_droba 1152 rle_example fails pavol_droba 1385 begin must be boost-qualified pdimov 1106 shared_ptr<T> should not convert to shared_ptr<U> when T* doesn't convert to U* ramey 1285 [serialization] problem when including shared_ptr_132.hpp ramey 1628 Lack of wide character support prevents boost.serialization from linking rogeeff 1383 signal.h features not found on Mac OS rogeeff 1542 [test] compiler errors when building with stdcxx library samuel_krempp 859 boost::format ignores a user defined locale shammah 290 perfomance: memory cleanup for pool takes too long shammah 386 boost::pool_allocator breaks with vector of vectors speedsnail 1138 Problems with TSS and static thread library t_schwinger 1100 Building boost.function_types fails cvs rev-1.1_ no chdir command in bash t_schwinger 1602 function_types Jamfile depends on the source tree being in a specific place. turkanis 1523 [iostreams] VC8/VC9 compiler warnings turkanis 1545 [boost/rational.hpp] 'noskipws' is not a member of 'std' turkanis 1579 gzip compressor should model DualUseFilter turkanis 1580 Add static assert to prohibit instantiating a chain with mode dual_use urzuga 574 [boost::lambda] Compile error with libstdc++ debug mode vladimir_prus 1165 more quoting problems vladimir_prus 1274 Useless error message vladimir_prus 1321 invalid docbook in tool documentation vladimir_prus 1527 [program_options] Second (and subsequent) lines in tabbed text not aligned correctly vladimir_prus 1530 Program options documentation - Overview - Syntactic Information example typo vladimir_prus 1537 no value given in 'mysql_password =' vladimir_prus 1584 cryptic bbv2 error building quickbook vladimir_prus 1587 [program_options] crashes if value part missing in external configuration file vladimir_prus 1588 [program_options] crashes if value part missing in external configuration file vladimir_prus 1645 Invalid unicode support for default_value vladimir_prus 469 multitoken broken vladimir_prus 689 [program_options] Endless loop with long default arguments witt 1046 Boost.Python quickstart instructions mention nonexistent target witt 583 Fixes for build on IBM pSeries for AIX and Linux witt 834 Homepage regression links witt 957 The "Getting Started" page does not mention the stdlib option witt 973 zip_iterator has value_type == reference -- -- Marshall Marshall Clow Qualcomm, Inc. <mailto:mclow@qualcomm.com> The famous British scientist, Lord Kelvin, said: "When you measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it, but when you cannot (or do not) measure it, when you cannot (or do not) express it in numbers, then your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind."

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[Iterator] possible zip_iterator problem (was:[Fwd: Re: Pairing ptr_containers with zip iterators])
by Thorsten Ottosen 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

Maybe something the iterator folks could comment on? Shunsuke, your insight is quite astonishing. -Thorsten

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Logging library review.
by Jurko Gospodnetić 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

Hi. Unfortunately I did not get enough free time to play around with this library as much as I would have liked. But here's what I have so far. I'll skip topic I feel were already covered sufficiently during this review and/or John already accepted to correct/change them. ---------------------------------------- * What is your evaluation of the design? ---------------------------------------- Natural. :-) Logging is one of those topics in which everything has been done before, things seem to be added one by one as needed to this one... There are some things I find no simple way to implement: * Filtering based on logged data. E.g. imagine logging airplane takeoffs and landings and wanting to log only landings for airplanes coming in from Frankfurt. * Filtering log messages so that they end up getting written to only some destinations. E.g. specifying at run-time that you want information about those same airplanes from Frankfurt logged to the output screen while all output, including this one, gets logged to the main network logging server. ------------------------------------------------ * What is your evaluation of the implementation? ------------------------------------------------ Have not delved much into the implementation details so here are just a few comments. Should spell out variable/function/class names without using short forms like 'idx' for 'index'. OK, maybe the code needing to be written can not get smaller... but when I look at the examples and the code I wrote I just get a gut feeling that 'something smells' there. Just seems like there is room for improvement. Exactly what it is... only usage will tell... :-) Should be reviewed carefully to make sure it does not to allow throwing exceptions from destructors. As I mentioned in another post (and never got John's answer to that one) - why not make logger initialization simpler by doing the following: * Remove the mark_as_initialized() function. * Allow loggers to be enabled or disabled. * When disabled, allow loggers to cache or ignore their log messages (subject to regular filtering). * Create loggers as active by default. * Allow the user to create loggers inactive and activate them later when appropriate. This way the most common use case when you do not need log caching would be simple and intuitive... and when someone needs caching - they will have no objection to having to enable it - and will even be glad that they have that functionality available. :-) This effectively solves the problem with users not being aware they need to call mark_as_initialized(). ----------------------------------------------- * What is your evaluation of the documentation? ----------------------------------------------- Good enough for getting an overview of the library. Too informal. All the information I needed was in there, but it was sometimes a bit hard to track down. I read the documentation first and then it often happened that I knew I saw something in there but had not idea where to look for it again. Looking at the main index did not help narrow down the choices. Long live grep! :-) Should explicitly document possible exception throws. Comparison between different logging solutions would be nice. Nothing about the documentation is a show-stopper. It should become much better 'naturally' with a few people reading through it and giving feed-back. Oh yeah... just another 'nitpicking detail'... the new changes page (http://torjo.com/log2/doc/v3/html/page_changelog.html) has a messed up header for release v0.22.7. :-) --------------------------------------------------------------------- * What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enormous. I believe that a logging library that managed to get into boost would be instantly grabbed by a large and high quality user base. Existing solutions are mostly hand-crafted and no packaged logging library I ever tried had all the functionality I needed (OK, most of them had it on paper, but caused crashes and such when you attempted to use it. :-)) The main problem with existing libraries I tried is that they left me with a feeling that 'no-one is developing them'. Most of them seem dead and others give only responses like 'that does not work at the moment, no one is working on it but if you need it - you can implement it yourself'. IMHO, they just did not have a large enough quality user base and development effort behind them to push them forward. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MSVC 7.1. and there were no problems that I could blame the library for except perhaps that it just seemed easy to make a mistake and have something 'not work'. But every such mistake was easy enough to locate and correct. As before - the library will get better at this as it matures. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Read the documentation, tried out several simple test logging scenarios and played out others on paper comparing them to the library's documentation. ------------------------------------------------- * Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? ------------------------------------------------- Somewhat. Implemented several simple logging solutions. Thought about the subject a lot. Involved in maintaining several active applications where logging is of tremendous use. ---------------------------------------------------------------- * What more do you wish to see changed/added/implemented in this library? How would you like to be able to use it? ---------------------------------------------------------------- I would like it to provide simple non-throwing logging support so logging can be made safe in destructors without having to fear my program crashing because of a failed log. I would like to see additional effort to make it difficult for logging messages to be lost accidentally, e.g. using preallocated storage for log messages, leaving log messages queued in the preallocated storage in case their output fails and retrying the output at a bit later time, together with a message that the original output failed. At the very least, I would like a message logged stating that some log messages got lost if this happens (possibly with the exact number of lost messages). The v1 functionality with specifying multiple loggers as a group using the hierarchical string syntax should be restored. I have used hand-crafted logging code supporting it before and it is a great feature allowing you to specify what to log and where to log it to at run-time and with different scope. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My vote would be 'Yes, accept it'. It seems good enough for me. This library's has one thing special about it and it seems both a curse and a blessing. It is the fact that the library, once accepted, is likely to get a huge user base. With such a user base it should be easy for it to evolve, but it will also create more and more pressure to provide a stable interface and backward compatibility. That and the fear of John stopping developing the library before it finds a new maintainer are pretty much the only reasons why I considered voting 'No'. Logging is such a 'wide' topic, with many interested parties, every one of them having its own vision of what logging is supposed to be. As a result - I believe we have a chicken & egg problem here. :-) It does not seem likely it will be possible to satisfy everyone just by 'designing' the library but on the other hand it needs to evolve by receiving actual user feedback. The current solution seems 'good enough' for me, and IMHO for any logging library there will always be someone who will think it is not 'good enough'. Keeping it rapidly evolving seems like the only way to go, and I'd rather use and contribute to a Boost library than other solutions I've tried so far. One thing did bother me during this review. I would like to see different logging library authors working more closely and possibly on a single logging library. Maybe its just me, but I did not like the tension/antagonism I sensed between them. :-( That said, John seems highly enthusiastic about completing this library and I do have faith that he will update the library with respect to all the suggestions collected during this review. Kudos to him on the work done so far, great enthusiasm and not buckling beneath all pressure caused by a Boost review of such complex topic as logging. Best regards, Jurko Gospodnetić

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[Boost.Test] should we add operator<<() for standard containers etc
by Thorsten Ottosen 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

Hi Gennadiy, I've just implemented some comparison operators for Boost.Assign's list_of(): typedef std::vector<int> Seq; BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL( ba::list_of(0)(1)(2), (Seq)ba::list_of(0)(1)(2) ); BOOST_CHECK_NE( ba::list_of(0)(1)(2), (Seq)ba::list_of(-1)(1)(2) ); BOOST_CHECK_LT( ba::list_of(0)(1)(2), (Seq)ba::list_of(0)(1)(3) ); BOOST_CHECK_LE( ba::list_of(0)(1)(2), (Seq)ba::list_of(0)(1)(2) ); BOOST_CHECK_GT( ba::list_of(0)(1)(3), (Seq)ba::list_of(0)(1)(2) ); BOOST_CHECK_GE( ba::list_of(0)(1)(2), (Seq)ba::list_of(0)(1)(2) ); This works, but I need to specify how to stream the other type of argument, in this case an std::vector<int> object: namespace std { template< class T, class Elem, class Traits > inline std::basic_ostream<Elem,Traits>& operator<<( std::basic_ostream<Elem, Traits>& Os, const std::vector<T>& r ) { return Os << ::boost::make_iterator_range( r.begin(), r.end() ); } } Since there are so many ranges out there, mabe it would be better to add the following. We already have BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL_COLLECTIONS(x,y,z,w) (but where is BOOST_CHECK_NE_COLLECTIONS etc?) then why not add BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL_RANGE( Rng1, Rng2 ) // implement by calling make_iterator_range() on the two arguments Also, I would like to see BOOST_CHECK_NE_RANGE( Rng1, Rng2 ) BOOST_CHECK_GT_RANGE( Rng1, Rng2 ) BOOST_CHECK_GE_RANGE( Rng1, Rng2 ) BOOST_CHECK_LT_RANGE( Rng1, Rng2 ) BOOST_CHECK_LE_RANGE( Rng1, Rng2 ) Any thoughts? -Thorsten

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