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

[Proto] Review
by dan marsden 02 Mar '08

02 Mar '08

Hi Review of Proto Evaluation of the design Excellent. The close collaboration with the Spirit development, and the fact Proto has underpinned xpressive for some time clearly shows in a mature looking library. The library uses MPL, Fusion, the result of protocol and other standard components effectively, making good use of other parts of Boost. One very small implementation question - arg_c doesn't have a corresponding arg, in line with the pattern see in MPL/Fusion for at/at_c etc. Was there a reason for this, if not I'd suggest always having xxx when there is a corresponding xxx_c feature. Evaluation of the documentation Proto's problem domain is naturally quite abstract, and more heavily technical than other Boost libraries. The documentation is of good quality, but I feel there may still be quite a steep learning curve for new users. The examples used are generally quite realistic, but this can mean they're tough to get started with in some cases. Some more trivial examples may help in places. Having said that, I learnt to use Proto from the documentation, so they're certainly sufficient to get going. I found a few specific issues in the docs: * The Transform concept documentation mentions ObjectTransform, but I cannot find any details of that transform in the concepts section * The call<> documentation has a "TODO LINK" left in it. This also brings up a general point, I'd like to see links in code samples etc to the related documentation if possible, it saves backing up and down all the time trying to follow examples. * The documentation for call<> mentions posit<_>. I could not find posit mentioned in the top level documentation - is this a Proto feature, or just part of the example? Again this brings up a general point, it might be good to use namespace qualification to highlight the distinction between library and user code. Usefulness Massive, there are plenty of DSEL's already in Boost, and plenty of others we probably should have. Effort put into review I implemented the (partially complete) port of Phoenix to Proto, using a slightly early version of the library. I've put a few hours study into the latest Proto documentation as I've not been using the library actively recently. Compilers used - gcc 3/4, msvc 7.1/8 Am I knowledgeable in the problem domain? Yes - I've implemented DSELs both with and without Proto, and appreciate the benefits of having the expression template engine in the form of a library. Should Proto be accepted into Boost? Yes Cheers Dan ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/

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Re: [boost] Serialization of Range library's sub_range
by brass goowy 02 Mar '08

02 Mar '08

Brian Wood writes: >Recently, I suggested there should be serialization support wrt >the Range library - >http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2008/01/132294.php. >I'm writing to inform you of my plans in this regard. This input: > >Msgs > (sub_range<list<short> >) @OUT >} > >to the C++ Middleware Writer, http://home.seventy7.com/cgi-bin/samb.cgi, >results in this output: > >#include <boost/range/sub_range.hpp> >#include <list> >#include <Buffer.hh> >using boost::sub_range; > > >struct Msgs >{ >inline >Msgs() {} >inline >~Msgs() {} > >inline >int >Send(Buffer* buf, const sub_range<list<short> >& about1) >{ > unsigned int headCount = 0; > headCount = about1.size(); > if (!buf->Receive(&headCount, sizeof(int))) { > buf->ews_.SetErrorWords(1, __FILE__, __LINE__); > return 0; > } > list<short>::const_iterator rit1 = boost::begin(about1); > list<short>::const_iterator rit2 = boost::end(about1); > for (; rit1 != rit2; ++rit1) { > if (!buf->Receive(&(*rit1), sizeof(short))) { > buf->ews_.SetErrorWords(1, __FILE__, __LINE__); > return 0; > } > } > > if (!buf->SendStoredData()) { > buf->ews_.SetErrorWords(2, __FILE__, __LINE__); > return 0; > } > return 1; >} > >}; > >This functionality isn't available online yet. G-d willing, it >will be available by the middle of next month. Update: the functionality is now available online. Brian Wood Ebenezer Enterprises www.webebenezer.net

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[Review] Proto review starts today, March 1st
by Tom Brinkman 01 Mar '08

01 Mar '08

Proto is the new backend for boost::spirit, boost::xpressive and the re-write of boost::phoenix, this is indeed an important library. It would seem that "Proto" already has the support of all of the top boost developers. 1) I wonder if you could give us a little bit of history, what motivated this library? 2) What were the defincies in previous design of boost::spirit. Why does spirit need a new backend? Learning to use boost:spirit is about a six month learing curve, but well worth it. For me, it was my introduction to functional programming. I'm excited to see what else is possible.

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