December 2009 - Boost - lists.preview.boost.org

Review Wizard report for December 2009
by John Phillips 14 Jan '10

14 Jan '10

All, Please check the report below and let Ron and I know if there are any issues so we can correct them before putting it on the web site. Pay especial attention to the need for many qualified and interested Review Managers. John ============================================== Review Wizard Status Report for December 2009 ============================================== News ==== Polygon Library Accepted Boost 1.40 Released New Libraries: None Revised Libraries: Accumulators, Asio, Circular Buffer, Filesystem, Foreach, Function, Fusion, Hash, Interprocess, Intrusive, MPL, Program Options, Proto, Python, Serialization, Unordered, Xpressive Geometry Library Accepted Boost 1.41 Released New Libraries: Property Tree Revised Libraries: DateTime, Filesystem, Iostreams, Math, Multi-index Containers, Proto, Python, Regex, Spirit, System, Thread, Unordered, Utility, Wave, Xpressive MSM Library Review Underway Constrained Value Review - Review Result still Pending Older Issues ============ The Time Series Library, accepted in August 2007, has not yet been submitted to SVN. The Floating Point Utilities Library, has not yet been submitted to SVN. It is slated to be integrated with the Boost.Math library. The Switch Library, accepted provisionally in January 2008, has not yet been submitted for mini-review and full acceptance. The Phoenix Library, accepted provisionally in September 2008, has not yet been submitted for mini-review and full acceptance. For libraries that are still waiting to get into SVN, please get them ready and into the repository. The developers did some great work making the libraries, so don't miss the chance to share that work with others. General Announcements ===================== As always, we need experienced review managers. The review queue has been growing substantially but we have had few volunteers, so manage reviews if possible and if not please make sure to watch the review schedule and participate. Please take a look at the list of libraries in need of managers and check out their descriptions. In general review managers are active boost participants or library contributors. If you can serve as review manager for any of them, email Ron Garcia or John Phillips, "garcia at osl dot iu dot edu" and "phillips at mps dot ohio-state dot edu" respectively. We are also suffering from a lack of reviewers. While we all understand time pressures and the need to complete paying work, the strength of Boost is based on the detailed and informed reviews submitted by you. A recent effort is trying to secure at least five people who promise to submit reviews as a precondition to starting the review period. Consider volunteering for this and even taking the time to create the review as early as possible. No rule says you can only work on a review during the review period. A link to this report will be posted to www.boost.org. If you would like us to make any modifications or additions to this report before we do that, please email Ron or John. If you're a library author and plan on submitting a library for review in the next 3-6 months, send Ron or John a short description of your library and we'll add it to the Libraries Under Construction below. We know that there are many libraries that are near completion, but we have hard time keeping track all of them. Please keep us informed about your progress. The included review queue isn't a classic queue. It is more an unordered list of the libraries awaiting review. As such, any library in the queue can be reviewed once the developer is ready and a review manager works with the wizards and the developer to schedule a review. It is not FIFO. Review Queue ============ * Lexer * Shifted Pointer * Logging * Log * Join * Pimpl * Task * Endian * Conversion * Sorting * GIL.IO * AutoBuffer * String Convert * Move * Containers * Interval Containers * Type Traits Extensions * Interthreads * Bitfield * Lockfree -------------------- Lexer ----- :Author: Ben Hanson :Review Manager: Eric Neibler :Download: `Boost Vault <http://boost-consulting.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=bo…>`__ :Description: A programmable lexical analyser generator inspired by 'flex'. Like flex, it is programmed by the use of regular expressions and outputs a state machine as a number of DFAs utilising equivalence classes for compression. Shifted Pointer --------------- :Author: Phil Bouchard :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://www.boost-consulting.com/vault/index.php?&direction=0&order=&directo…>`__ :Description: Smart pointers are in general optimized for a specific resource (memory usage, CPU cycles, user friendliness, ...) depending on what the user need to make the most of. The purpose of this smart pointer is mainly to allocate the reference counter (or owner) and the object itself at the same time so that dynamic memory management is simplified thus accelerated and cheaper on the memory map. Logging ------- :Author: John Torjo :Review Manager: Gennadiy Rozental :Download: http://torjo.com/log2/ :Description: Used properly, logging is a very powerful tool. Besides aiding debugging/testing, it can also show you how your application is used. The Boost Logging Library allows just for that, supporting a lot of scenarios, ranging from very simple (dumping all to one destination), to very complex (multiple logs, some enabled/some not, levels, etc). It features a very simple and flexible interface, efficient filtering of messages, thread-safety, formatters and destinations, easy manipulation of logs, finding the best logger/filter classes based on your application's needs, you can define your own macros and much more! Log --- :Author: Andrey Semashev :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://tinyurl.com/cm9lum>`__ :Description: The library is aimed to help adding logging features to applications. It provides out-of-box support for many widely used capabilities, such as formatting and filtering based on attributes, sending logs to a syslog server or to Windows Event Log, or simply storing logs into files. It also provides basic support for the library initialization from a settings file. The library can also be used for a wider range of tasks and implement gathering and processing statistical information or notifying user about application events. Join ---- :Author: Yigong Liu :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://channel.sourceforge.net/ :Description: Join is an asynchronous, message based C++ concurrency library based on join calculus. It is applicable both to multi-threaded applications and to the orchestration of asynchronous, event-based applications. It follows Comega's design and implementation and builds with Boost facilities. It provides a high level concurrency API with asynchronous methods, synchronous methods, and chords which are "join-patterns" defining the synchronization, asynchrony, and concurrency. Pimpl ----- :Author: Vladimir Batov :Review Manager: Needed :Download: | `Boost Vault <http://www.boost-consulting.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filenam…>`__ | http://www.ddj.com/cpp/205918714 (documentation) :Description: The Pimpl idiom is a simple yet robust technique to minimize coupling via the separation of interface and implementation and then implementation hiding. This library provides a convenient yet flexible and generic deployment technique for the Pimpl idiom. It's seemingly complete and broadly applicable, yet minimal, simple and pleasant to use. Task ----------- :Author: Oliver Kowalke :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=bo…>`__ :Description: Formerly called Thread Pool The library provides: - thread creation policies: determines the management of worker threads: - fixed set of threads in pool - create workerthreads on demand (depending on context) - let worker threads ime out after certain idle time - channel policies: manages access to queued tasks: - bounded channel with high and low watermark for queuing tasks - unbounded channel with unlimited number of queued tasks - rendezvous syncron hand-over between producer and consumer threads - queueing policy: determines how tasks will be removed from channel: - FIFO - LIFO - priority queue (attribute assigned to task) - smart insertions and extractions (for instance remove oldest task with certain attribute by newst one) - tasks can be chained and lazy submit of taks is also supported (thanks to Braddocks future library). - returns a task object from the submit function. The task it self can be interrupted if its is cooperative (means it has some interruption points in its code -> ``this_thread::interruption_point()`` ). Endian ------ :Author: Beman Dawes :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://mysite.verizon.net/beman/endian-0.10.zip :Description: Conversion ---------- :Author: Vicente Botet :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=co…>`__ :Description: Generic explicit conversion between unrelated types. Boost.Conversion provides: * a generic ``convert_to`` function which can be specialized by the user to make explicit conversion between unrelated types. * a generic ``assign_to`` function which can be specialized by the user to make explicit assignation between unrelated types. * conversion between ``std::complex`` of explicitly convertible types. * conversion between ``std::pair`` of explicitly convertible types. * conversion between ``boost::optional`` of explicitly convertible types. * conversion between ``boost::rational`` of explicitly convertible types. * conversion between ``boost::interval`` of explicitly convertible types. * conversion between ``boost::chrono::time_point`` and ``boost::ptime``. * conversion between ``boost::chrono::duration`` and ``boost::time_duration``. Sorting ------- :Author: Steven Ross :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=al…>`__ :Description: A grouping of 3 templated hybrid radix/comparison-based sorting algorithms that provide superior worst-case and average-case performance to std::sort: integer_sort, which sorts fixed-size data types that support a rightshift (default of >>) and a comparison (default of <) operator. float_sort, which sorts standard floating-point numbers by safely casting them to integers. string_sort, which sorts variable-length data types, and is optimized for 8-bit character strings. All 3 algorithms have O(n(k/s + s)) runtime where k is the number of bits in the data type and s is a constant, and limited memory overhead (in the kB for realistic inputs). In testing, integer_sort varies from 35% faster to 8X as fast as std::sort, depending on processor, compiler optimizations, and data distribution. float_sort is roughly 7X as fast as std::sort on x86 processors. string_sort is roughly 2X as fast as std::sort. GIL.IO ------ :Author: Christian Henning :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `GIL Google Code Vault <http://gil-contributions.googlecode.com/files/rc2.zip>`__ :Description: I/O extension for boost::gil which allows reading and writing of/in various image formats ( tiff, jpeg, png, etc ). This review will also include the Toolbox extension which adds some common functionality to gil, such as new color spaces, algorithms, etc. AutoBuffer ---------- :Author: Thorsten Ottosen :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Here <http://www.cs.aau.dk/~nesotto/boost/auto_buffer.zip>`__ :Description: Boost.AutoBuffer provides a container for efficient dynamic, local buffers. Furthermore, the container may be used as an alternative to std::vector, offering greater flexibility and sometimes better performance. String Convert -------------- :Author: Vladimir Batov :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=bo…>`__ :Description: The library takes the approach of boost::lexical_cast in the area of string-to-type and type-to-string conversions, builds on the past boost::lexical_cast experience and advances that conversion functionality further to additionally provide: * throwing and non-throwing conversion-failure behavior; * support for the default value to be returned when conversion fails; * two types of the conversion-failure check -- basic and better/safe; * formatting support based on the standard I/O Streams and the standard (or user-defined) I/O Stream-based manipulators (like std::hex, std::scientific, etc.); * locale support; * support for boost::range-compliant char and wchar_t-based string containers; * no DefaultConstructibility requirement for the Target type; * consistent framework to uniformly incorporate any type-to-type conversions. It is an essential tool with applications making extensive use of configuration files or having to process/prepare considerable amounts of data in, say, XML, etc. Move ---------------- :Author: Ion Gaztanaga :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/move/ and online documentation at http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/move/libs/move/doc/html/index.html :Description: In C++0x, move semantics are implemented with the introduction of rvalue references. They allow us to implement move() without verbosity or runtime overhead. Boost.Move is a library that offers tools to implement those move semantics not only in compilers with rvalue references but also in compilers conforming to C++03. Containers ------------------ :Author: Ion Gaztanaga :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=boost.… and online documentation at http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/move/libs/container/doc/html/index.h… :Description: Boost.Container library implements several well-known containers, including STL containers. The aim of the library is to offers advanced features not present in standard containers or to offer the latest standard draft features for compilers that comply with C++03. Interval Containers Library ------------------------- :Author: Joachim Faulhaber :Review Manager: Needed :Description: The Interval Template Library (Itl) provides intervals and two kinds of interval containers: Interval_sets and interval_maps. Interval_sets and maps can be used just as sets or maps of elements. Yet they are much more space and time efficient when the elements occur in contiguous chunks: intervals. This is obviously the case in many problem domains, particularly in fields that deal with problems related to date and time. Interval containers allow for intersection with interval_sets to work with segmentation. For instance you might want to intersect an interval container with a grid of months and then iterate over those months. Finally interval_maps provide aggregation on associated values, if added intervals overlap with intervals that are stored in the interval_map. This feature is called aggregate on overlap. It is shown by example: :: typedef set<string> guests; interval_map<time, guests> party; guests mary; mary.insert("Mary"); guests harry; harry.insert("Harry"); party += make_pair(interval<time>::rightopen(20:00, 22:00),mary); party += make_pair(interval<time>::rightopen_(21:00, 23:00),harry); // party now contains [20:00, 21:00)->{"Mary"} [21:00, 22:00)->{"Harry","Mary"} //guest sets aggregated on overlap [22:00, 23:00)->{"Harry"} As can be seen from the example an interval_map has both a decompositional behavior (on the time dimension) as well as a accumulative one (on the associated values). Type Traits Extensions -------------------------- :Author: Frédéric Bron :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/browser/sandbox/type_traits :Description: The purpose of the addition is to add type traits to detect if types T and U are comparable in the sens of <, <=, >, >=, == or != operators, i.e. if t<u has a sens when t is of type T and u of type U (same for <=, >, >=, ==, !=). The following traits are added: is_equal_to_comparable<T,U> is_greater_comparable<T,U> is_greater_equal_comparable<T,U> is_less_comparable<T,U> is_less_equal_comparable<T,U> is_not_equal_to_comparable<T,U> The names are based on the corresponding names of the standard template library (<functional> header, section 20.3.3 of the standard). The code has the following properties: * returns true if t<u is meaningful and returns a value convertible to bool * returns false if t<u is meaningless. * fails with compile time error if t<u is meaningful and returns void (a possibility to avoid compile time error would be to return true with an operator, trick but this has little sens as returning false would be better) InterThreads ------------------- :Author: Vicente J. Botet Escriba :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=in…>`__ :Description: Boost.InterThreads extends Boost.Threads adding some features: * thread decorator: thread_decorator allows to define setup/cleanup functions which will be called only once by thread: setup before the thread function and cleanup at thread exit. * thread specific shared pointer: this is an extension of the thread_specific_ptr providing access to this thread specific context from other threads. As it is shared the stored pointer is a shared_ptr instead of a raw one. * thread keep alive mechanism: this mechanism allows to detect threads that do not prove that they are alive by calling to the keep_alive_point regularly. When a thread is declared dead a user provided function is called, which by default will abort the program. * thread tuple: defines a thread groupe where the number of threads is know statically and the threads are created at construction time. * set_once: a synchonizer that allows to set a variable only once, notifying to the variable value to whatever is waiting for that. * thread_tuple_once: an extension of the boost::thread_tuple which allows to join the thread finishing the first, using for that the set_once synchronizer. * thread_group_once: an extension of the boost::thread_group which allows to join the thread finishing the first, using for that the set_once synchronizer. (thread_decorator and thread_specific_shared_ptr) are based on the original implementation of threadalert written by Roland Schwarz. Boost.InterThreads extends Boost.Threads adding thread setup/cleanup decorator, thread specific shared pointer, thread keep alive mechanism and thread tuples. Bitfield --------------- :Author: Vicente J. Botet Escriba :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/bitfield with documentation available at https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/bitfield/libs/bitfield/doc/index.ht… :Description: Portable bitfields traits. Boost.Bitfield consists of: * a generic bitfield traits class providing generic getter and setter methods. * a BOOST_BITFIELD_DCL macro making easier the definition of the bitfield traits and the bitfield getter and setter functions. Lockfree ------------------ :Author: Tim Blechmann :Review Manager: Needed :Description: boost.lockfree provides implementations of lock-free data structures. lock-free data structures can be accessed by multiple threads without the necessity of blocking synchronization primitives such as guards. lock-free data structures can be used in real-time systems, where blocking algorithms may lead to high worst-case execution times, to avoid priority inversion, or to increase the scalability for multi-processor machines. boost.lockfree provides: * boost::lockfree::fifo, a lock-free fifo queue * boost::lockfree::stack, a lock-free stack the code is available from the boost vault: http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=boost_… and from my personal git repository: git://tim.klingt.org/boost_lockfree.git http://tim.klingt.org/git?p=boost_lockfree.git the documentation is available at: http://tim.klingt.org/boost_lockfree/ Libraries under development =========================== Please let us know of any libraries you are currently developing that you intend to submit for review. See https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/LibrariesUnderConstruction for a current listing of libraries under development.

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[msm] scalability
by Christophe Henry 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi Simon, > I think it would be worthwhile talking a little more about compile time performance in the documentation. You're right, I could explain more in the documentation. Unfortunately, the answer is not straightforward. The compilation time (and how far the compiler plays with us) depends on a number of factors: 1) the compiler 2) the compiler version 3) even your hardware (I get very different compile times on 2 different machines with the same processor) 4) the state machine structure and the chosen front-end 1) usually, g++ crashes later than VC and needed fewer workarounds 2) Surprisingly, g++4.2 > g++ 4.4. VC10 > VC9 > VC8 3) you will need RAM, especially with VC8 4) the compile-time is proportional to the number of transitions in the transition table and to the depth of the state machine (meaning submachine of submachine of...). EUML will cost you much more with VC than g++ as it implies a metaprogramming layer above the standard metaprogramming of the standard front-end and because the underlying decltype/typeof seems much better implemented with g++ (if you don't count the generated code size). A small test with VC9 in Release mode (and no other code) gave me: 20 transitions => 11s 30 transitions => 16s 40 transitions => 22s 50 transitions => 31s This is just to give you an idea as it can greatly depend on the factors named above. > Also I'd like to see some suggestions of how to improve compile times (and how factors including the number of entries in a transition table affect the compile time). There is just one solution: reduce the number of transitions. The best way to do it is using orthogonal regions. For example, if you see in your diagram many transitions to a single state based on the same event, you should factor them all into a second region. Adding submachines could help in some cases. On one hand, the compiler now has to generate code for a second machine, OTOH it reduces the number of transitions in the main one. This will only help if your submachine handles a small number of events, as Msm will add a row in the main table for every event of the submachines. If you can in exchange reduce the number of transitions, it can help. > Is there provision to split a machine across multiple compilation units (I assume not)? You unfortunately assume correctly, as what costs compile-time really is the heavy metaprogramming. > You include instructions for how to increase the maximum size of an MPL vector, but this only works up to 50 entries. What do we need to do to increase this further? This is pretty simple, we need to: - add a vector60/70/80....hpp in mpl/vector. - add a map60/70....hpp in mpl/map. - if more than 50 states, add vector60/70....hpp in fusion/vector This is pretty simple. If that helps, I can add them into the Msm sandbox as I already wrote them. We could also request a feature in the MPL. You will however not manage to increase the size of the transition table forever. At some point will almost every compiler crash in a big cloud of dark smoke. To give you an idea, I usually manage: - 60-80 transitions max with VC9. The exact point is variable on a number of different factors which are hard to understand. - probably less with VC8. VC8 will also quite fast need > 2GB RAM. - 80 transitions with g++4.2. It could probably manage more but I ran out of RAM. - 50-60 with g++4.4. Why 4.4 is in this case less good than 4.2 is a mystery to me. - In Debug mode, you'll see the compiler give up faster - Euml will also have an influence. > Euml looks really cool, but I'm getting an ICE when using it with 36 transitions in EumlSimple.cpp (12 and 24 work fine though) VC8 only has limited support for eUML for 3 reasons: - less than perfect metaprogramming capabilities - bad support for SFINAE - VC problems with decltype/typeof So yes, I would advise eUML for VC8 for only small state machines and without using complicated functors as actions/guards. VC9 would work much better, VC10 better than VC9 too (so Microsoft seems to be working on it). >One of my favourite features of boost::statechart is state local storage. It looks like this would have to be done manually in msm? Yes, this is not supported yet. However, Msm has always been developed very user-oriented and what users ask, they usually get it. Msm has from the beginning greatly gained from clever people suggesting new features and I will not stop the development after the review, whatever the outcome is. If you'd like a feature, I'd be happy to discuss a solution with you and implement it in the next version, thus making Msm more useful. > The library is looking really powerful and expressive (not to mention fast!) for small state machines. Thanks. This is the reason for the compile-times ;-) Christophe

5 5

Re: [boost] Meta State Machine (MSM) review
by Christophe Henry 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi Barend, Sorry that I didn't have time to address earlier the questions in your review. >I would like to see a connection with Boost.Graph (I mean, see it in an >example or so, not within the kernel), to see what I'm doing with all >those transitions; I asked this on the list and this is possible, good. It is a good point and I'll try to provide this, at least for simple state machines. >1) the struct "Row" is written with a capital, this is unusual within >Boost. Words with a capital are normally template parameters. I >understand why it is done (there was already a row without a capital in >Msm 1.1), but I think it could have been solved differently (for >example: "transition", or if that is too long "tr" which could stand for >transition row or table row). I don't like to see Row where I expect to >see a normal classname. Conventions are always hard to define. I usually try to follow the following convention: - rows are usually not capitalized (a_row, g_row...) - except the row working with functors, like Row - eUML functors are also capitalized and finish with an underscore. - eUML functions are not capitalized and finish with an underscore. This tries to match the phoenix syntax. This allows differentiation between functors/non functors. I found this system practical but would not mind changing it if required. >The capitals are also used in the documentation and samples (struct >Empty) but there I've less problems with it. Maybe use of Capitals for >states is a state machine convention Yes, it is a common habit in UML to capitalize state names (though I am not aware of any written rules). >I noticed different conventions in >the source files. Many template parameters are completely capitalized. I >had done the same thing, earlier, but was hinted that this is unusual as >well. Just a matter of style (as long as library users normally don't >see it, it is less important) Yes, while the user doesn't see it, it is not very beautiful so I'll change this. >2) the class state_machine is quite long (in lines of code), containing >several sub-structs which maybe (don't know) could be moved to a >separate source file (detail). Yes, it became quite big, you're right. It's quite practical for me to have functions and helpers at the same place but some parts could be separated. >You have to call p.start() manually Yes. Calling start() will move the machine in its initial state and call on_entry on the machine and the initial state. You have to call it explicitly because sometimes you simply don't want on_entry to be called at the creation of the state machine. >Thanks for submitting this excellent library. I'm happy that you like it. Thanks for the great work you put on the review. Regards, Christophe

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Re: [boost] [msm] eUML guard/action location
by Christophe Henry 10 Jan '10

10 Jan '10

>Are all those parentheses used for optional arguments, or could we consider eliminating them? I'd love to eliminate them but don't see how. They actually are constructors. The complete expression would be something like: typedef BOOST_TYPEOF(build_stt(( DestState() = CurrentState() + cool_event()[guard()]/action(), DestState2() = CurrentState() + cool_event()[guard2()]/action2() ) ) ) transition_table; So I'm really just pretending to pass on-the-fly instances of arguments from types DestState, CurrentState, etc. to evaluate the result with typeof after proto is done.

5 4

[Boost.Build] Unexpected MSVC linker error
by Sergey Zubkovsky 08 Jan '10

08 Jan '10

Hi, I'm using bjam and VC++2008 Express Edition to build date_time library, for example. When I try to link it with my project I have the error: LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'boost_date_time-vc90-mt-gd-1_40.lib' The bjam's command line options are : --layout=tagged toolset=msvc The name of the genereated lib file is "boost_date_time-mt-gd.lib". The error doesn't occur if the "--layout" option is "versioned" or "system". It seems to me that the cause of this behavior is the following text in the file "boost\config\auto_link.hpp": #ifndef BOOST_AUTO_LINK_NOMANGLE # pragma comment(lib, BOOST_LIB_PREFIX BOOST_STRINGIZE(BOOST_LIB_NAME) "-" BOOST_LIB_TOOLSET BOOST_LIB_THREAD_OPT BOOST_LIB_RT_OPT "-" BOOST_LIB_VERSION ".lib") # ifdef BOOST_LIB_DIAGNOSTIC # pragma message ("Linking to lib file: " BOOST_LIB_PREFIX BOOST_STRINGIZE(BOOST_LIB_NAME) "-" BOOST_LIB_TOOLSET BOOST_LIB_THREAD_OPT BOOST_LIB_RT_OPT "-" BOOST_LIB_VERSION ".lib") # endif #else # pragma comment(lib, BOOST_STRINGIZE(BOOST_LIB_NAME) ".lib") # ifdef BOOST_LIB_DIAGNOSTIC # pragma message ("Linking to lib file: " BOOST_STRINGIZE(BOOST_LIB_NAME) ".lib") # endif #endif "-" BOOST_LIB_VERSION ".lib" is always added in the "pragma comment" directive, if BOOST_AUTO_LINK_NOMANGLE is undefined, of cause. Is this a bug? How can I workaround it if this is not a bug? Thank you.

4 6

[test] trunk breakage
by Vladimir Prus 08 Jan '10

08 Jan '10

I went to check the current state of Boost.UUID test results on trunk, and found many tests failing. Here's a typical issue: http://tinyurl.com/y8c9w39 This looks like Boost.Test problem. The testrun is for revision 58533, while last change in boost/test is: r58526 | rogeeff | 2009-12-25 12:20:28 +0300 (Fri, 25 Dec 2009) | 1 line in preparation of production use of test tools So, it seems the test run corresponds to the current state of Boost.Test, and that state is a bit broken. In fact, it looks like a *lot* of tests are failing on trunk, and every test that uses Boost.Test is affected. Boost.Test itself appears to fail to build in may configurations: http://tinyurl.com/ybfkeb2 Gennadiy, I realize this might be a Christmas/New Year break, but at the same time we have a "major code changes" deadline on Jan 4th, and such interruption of test reporting make things hard. Is there any chance you could investigate? If this issue cannot be sorted out quickly, we might have to revert the commit for now. Thanks, Volodya

9 28

Is floating_point_comparison.hpp general purpose tool?
by Mateusz Loskot 07 Jan '10

07 Jan '10

Hi, I'm wondering why the floating-point algorithms [1] implementation in floating_point_comparison.hpp lives in Boost UTF. Shouldn't it go to location that would suggest it's not only usable for unit tests but it is a general purpose tool. [1] http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_41_0/libs/test/doc/html/utf/testing-tools/f… Best regards, -- Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net Charter Member of OSGeo, http://osgeo.org

4 10

[io] Tickets #1414, #3588, #3725 (warning fixes)
by Richard Webb 06 Jan '10

06 Jan '10

Does anyone care to merge the fix for #1414 (https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1414) to the Release branch? It looks like that change should fix both #3588 and #3725 as well. Thanks, Richard Webb -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/-io--Tickets--1414%2C--3588%2C--3725-%28warning-fixes… Sent from the Boost - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

2 1

[uuid] - release schedule
by Andy Tompkins 03 Jan '10

03 Jan '10

Hi release managers, I have been working to get the uuid library to pass for the different toolsets in trunk. The only failures (since my last check in, changeset 58370) are for 'codegear' and 'siliconman', which have to do with the random library or the test library, both of which have lots of failures as well. Should I somehow mark them as expected failures? Or is there a way (for test at least) to use the test library differently than I am? Do you want me (I assume me) to put the uuid library into the release branch? I know this is the last day to add new libraries. I am not trying to push it in. I just want to do know what you want me to do. Wait until the next release or put it in this release? Regards, Andy.

5 11

[graph] improvements on/documentation for transitive_reduction.hpp
by eric＠boese-wolf.eu 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

Hi there! I did improve on the transitive reduction and wrote some documentation. As there are multiple files now, I did not send them to the mailing list. Shall I send a tar.gz to the mailing list? How can I contribute these files to the graph library? As I wrote the code/documentation I noticed that it is possible to implement the transitive reduction by a few minor changes to the existing transitive_closure algorithm (and it would be better). I will follow that path someday in the future. Yours sincerely, Eric Böse-Wolf

2 1

bcp update #2: namespace renaming
by John Maddock 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

OK, since folks keep asking for it, bcp will now do namespace renaming, the two new options are: --namespace=newname Renames namespace boost to "newname" in all the source files copied. Also changes library names to start with the prefix "newname" or "libnewname" rather than "boost" or "libboost". --namespace-alias Makes namespace boost an alias for the new name. Using these two options you can get "strong versioning" with two different boost installs coexisting side by side (in the same application if necessary). What you can not do at present, is #include two different boost versions in the same translation unit. This update is in, and tested against, SVN Trunk only at present. Enjoy, John.

6 17

[any] New feature idea for boost.any
by Andres B. 01 Jan '10

01 Jan '10

Hello, i am Andrés, i am new in the boost world and i have an idea to boost.any. With the actual boost::any i can't do this: boost::any any_var; int i; any_var = 10; i = 1 + any_var; double d; // d = 1.0 + any_var; // throw: bad_any_cast, because any_var is int any_var = 10.0; d = 1.0 + any_var - 3.0; // now any_var is double because are incompatible types. To solve this problem, we need add the casting operator and add overload the global operators. I wrote the code and actually have the global operators overloaded +, -, *, /, %. I don't know how write code to Boost, for this reason maybe has errors. namespase boost { class any { //.... public: // casting operators template <class ValueType> operator ValueType () const { return boost::any_cast<ValueType>(*this); } template <class ValueType> operator ValueType () { return boost::any_cast<ValueType>(*this); } // arithmetic operators template <typename ValueType> ValueType operator+ (const ValueType& t1) const { return (ValueType)(*this) + t1; } template <typename ValueType> ValueType operator- (const ValueType& t1) const { return (ValueType)(*this) - t1; } template <typename ValueType> ValueType operator* (const ValueType& t1) const { return (ValueType)(*this) * t1; } template <typename ValueType> ValueType operator/ (const ValueType& t1) const { return (ValueType)(*this) / t1; } template <typename ValueType> ValueType operator% (const ValueType& t1) const { return (ValueType)(*this) % t1; } //... } // End any //... // Global operators template <class ValueType> ValueType operator+ (ValueType t1, boost::any t2) { return t1 + (ValueType)(t2); } template <class ValueType> ValueType operator- (ValueType t1, boost::any t2) { return t1 - (ValueType)(t2); } template <class ValueType> ValueType operator* (ValueType t1, boost::any t2) { return t1 * (ValueType)(t2); } template <class ValueType> ValueType operator/ (ValueType t1, boost::any t2) { return t1 - (ValueType)(t2); } template <class ValueType> ValueType operator% (ValueType t1, boost::any t2) { return t1 % (ValueType)(t2); } } If you like it or not, please tell me. Excuse my English

3 2

linear algebra (and matrix) library (again)
by DE 31 Dec '09

31 Dec '09

hi again i worked on a linear algebra library there are almost fully working prototype and its documentation in the vault (BIBLAL) http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=linalg& i would appreciate your interest and feedback -- Pavel ps happy new year!

1 0

Re: [boost] [date_time] quarters as new durations?
by pete＠pcbartlett.com 31 Dec '09

31 Dec '09

On Tue 22/12/09 13:54 , "Stewart, Robert" <Robert.Stewart(a)sig.com> wrote: > wrote: > > On Tue 22/12/09 13:27 , "Stewart, Robert" wrote: > > > Jeff Garland wrote: > > > > > > > > Month durations play some games to handle this problem (see > > > > docs for details) which quarters could adopt. But if you > > > > adopt the month rules then I don't thing you buy much more > > > > than simply writing > > > > > > > > const months quarters = months(3); > > > > > That's an excellent point. I don't think the fuzzy math > approach is > > > appropriate for quarters because they have a precise definition: > 1/4 > > > of a year. Months are less precise, though 365 / 4 is not a > whole > > > number, of course. > > > > Possibly opening a can of worms here, but a quarter in my > > line of work is invariably three months. If your mileage > > varies, then there could be a problem in providing a fully > > meaningful quarter duration type if people think it means > > different things. > Jeff's idea of months(3) is all you need, right? Yup, and in fact I use exactly that approach at the moment. A new duration type with quarter in the name that meant something other than three months could serve to confuse as much as it helps though, IMO.

2 1

GPL and boost
by Stefan Strasser 31 Dec '09

31 Dec '09

Hi, is there a precedent of optional(!) external library dependencies to GPLed libraries in boost? IIUC the implementation of the interface to the library in boost would constitute a derivative work of the GPLed library and therefore be "infected" by it. do the terms of the GPL then only apply if a boost user is actually using this optional code and linking to the external library or does this inhibit the distribution of such code with boost releases in general? and if so, is external distribution, e.g. in the vault, but documentation in the main library acceptable? I'm asking because of a possible interface to Oracle's Berkeley DB, but I guess this will come up again with Boost.Rdb and GPLed SQL databases.

2 2

Linking Errors in Boost Logging
by nsk＠umd.edu 31 Dec '09

31 Dec '09

Hi, I am a beginner in using the Boost Libraries. I came across them when I was trying to implement the Boost Logging Framework version2 from John Torjo's website. I tried implementing the starter project(http://torjo.com/log2/doc/html/starter_project.html) from Boost Log documentation using Visual Studios 2005 IDE. I got the following 2 errors: error C2440: '<function-style-cast>' : cannot convert from 'const char [13]' to 'boost::logging::formatter::tag::time' and error C2780: 'void boost::logging::writer::format_write<formatter_base,destinatio n_base,lock_resource,apply_format_and_write,router_type,format ter_array,destination_array>::add_formatter(formatter,const boost::logging::char_type *)' : expects 2 arguments - 1 provided So, I commented the formatter::tag::time line assuming that I don't need time to be displayed for the time being. The program complied properly but it gave me link errors: error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "struct boost::logging::filter::use_tss_with_cache<10> * __cdecl g_l_filter(void)" (?g_l_filter@@YAPAU? $use_tss_with_cache@$09@filter@logging@boost@@XZ) referenced in function "void __cdecl `anonymous namespace'::`dynamic initializer for 'ensure_log_is_created_before_maing_l_filter''(void)" (?? __Eensure_log_is_created_before_maing_l_filter@? A0x6e6fd73c@@YAXXZ) my_app_log.obj and error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _main referenced in function ___tmainCRTStartup MSVCRTD.lib Please let me know whether I am missing some linker dependencies. Please help! -Nik Kale

3 2

Major code changes deadline approaching
by Vladimir Prus 30 Dec '09

30 Dec '09

Boosters, The deadline for "major code changes" for 1.42 is Monday, January 4, 2010. Please try to get all big features merged to release branch by that date, and let the release team know if there are any issues. The next deadline will be Jan 11, when the release branch will be closed for all changes, except by explicit permission. -- The Release Managers, Beman Dawes Daniel James Eric Niebler Rene Rivera Vladimir Prus

5 6

is_explicitly_convertible
by Daniel Frey 29 Dec '09

29 Dec '09

Just in case someone's interested: I implemented is_explicitly_convertible for GCC 4.4+ (4.3 doesn't work). Since it uses lots of C++0x-ish stuff, it is likely not a good addition to boost::type_traits, but I figured the people here might be interested anyway :) #include <type_traits> namespace boost { namespace impl { template< typename T > T make(); template< typename From, typename To > decltype( To( make< From >() ), make< std::true_type >() ) select( int ); template< typename, typename > std::false_type select( ... ); } template< typename From, typename To > struct is_explicitly_convertible : std::is_same< decltype( impl::select< From, To >( 0 ) ), std::true_type > { }; } struct X { X( double& ); explicit X( int& ); }; #define STATIC_ASSERT( X ) static_assert( X, #X ) int main() { STATIC_ASSERT(( boost::is_explicitly_convertible< double&, X >::value )); STATIC_ASSERT(( boost::is_explicitly_convertible< int&, X >::value )); STATIC_ASSERT(( !boost::is_explicitly_convertible< void*, X >::value )); } Regards, Daniel

1 0

boost::serialization, binary archive contents
by Dan 29 Dec '09

29 Dec '09

Hi All, Im not sure if this the correct mailing list or not.. in fact im not sure if i'm even going about this the right way.. forums are so much easier.. Im using the boost::serialization library, im attempting to serialize an image file from the freeimage library. It is working beautifully if i serialize to a text archive however, binary archives fail to load with a "stream error" exception. With the freeimage library i can save the image to memory and then retrieve the pointer to the start memory address and also retrieve the size. With this information I attempt the following (NOTE, "io" is the freeimage memory stream (fipMemoryIO) which is returning the memory pointer and the size): void save(Archive & ar, const unsigned int version) const { BYTE * pData; DWORD dwSize; io.acquire(&pData1, &dwSize); ar & dwSize; boost::serialization::array<BYTE> ao = boost::serialization::make_array<BYTE>(pData, dwSize); ar & ao; } void load(Archive & ar, const unsigned int version) { BYTE * pData; DWORD dwSize; ar & dwSize; pData = new BYTE[dwSize]; boost::serialization::array<BYTE> ao = boost::serialization::make_array<BYTE>(pData, dwSize); ar & ao; // <----------- This throws an exception } The above throws the exception.. even though it succeeds with a text archive. What is even more frustrating is that if (when saving) the contents pData1 points to are changed, when loading there is no exception. (Obviously the bitmap would be corrupt but thats beside the point). void save(Archive & ar, const unsigned int version) const { BYTE * pData; DWORD dwSize; io.acquire(&pData1, &dwSize); ar & dwSize; memset(pData1, 0xAB, dwSize); // <--- Add this line an no exception is thrown. boost::serialization::array<BYTE> ao = boost::serialization::make_array<BYTE>(pData, dwSize); ar & ao; } I am at a loss. If i want to write x number of bytes it should write x number of bytes no matter what those bytes are.. I must be doing something wrong because this just doesnt make sense. The exception is always thrown in basic_binary_iprimitve.hpp if(scount != s) boost::serialization::throw_exception( archive_exception(archive_exception::stream_error) ); Regards, Dan

3 4

[typeof] Determining if a type has been registered or not at compile time
by Edward Diener 27 Dec '09

27 Dec '09

Is there any way one can determine whether a type has been registered or not with Boost.Typeof at compile time so that the information can be used in TMP ? I am thinking, of course, of the use of typeof in a template, where a template parameter may or may not be aregistered type when the template has been instantiated. I would like to provide my own TMP fallback code if the type has not been registered rather than see an immediate compiler error generated. Something like: boost::mpl::eval_if < boost::typeof::registered<T>, // this would be nice to have boost::mpl::identity<BOOST_TYPEOF_TPL(some_expression)>, boost::mpl::identity</* use another facility to get the type I want into a metafunction*/> >

2 4

Interest check: Boost.Mock
by Peter Bindels 26 Dec '09

26 Dec '09

Hi all, Over the past three-quarters of a year I've been working (with three friends) on a mocking framework for C++. In our vision, it would be a good complement to Boost.Test for testing classes separate from interfaces required - it would improve the ability to unit-test the classes that tie others together and that implement higher-level algorithms. It does this by creating an object that is "derived" from a given class at runtime, and replacing the functions with functions that redirect to verifying logic. The verifying logic uses basic structures to record expectations and to verify they happened. These ways of creating an object at runtime and modifying it are highly compiler dependant but remarkably portable - as it runs on at least 3 different compiler series (GCC, MSVC, EDG-based) and 5 platforms (Windows XP, Windows CE, Linux, QNX, bare platform), with few modifications. The library has been released under the name "Hippo Mocks" already. I'm interested in submitting it to Boost for three reasons. First of all, I believe that there may be obvious or very interesting optimizations or expansions I do not notice. Second, as Christian has elaborated on already, having the Boost tag on the project makes it more noticed and more used. As it has taken quite a bit of time from me already I would like people to use it. Third, Boost.Test allows testing code but does not support mocking. In the environment of unit testing, anything that is not a base library benefits from mocking by abstracting away details that are irrelevant and that will break your test unnecessarily. For Boost the main changes would be superficial in the naming and in using more default libraries instead of a new implementation. For Hippo Mocks I've decided to make no assumptions in anything over C++98 so there's a full Tuple implementation and so on. If there's an interest I'll spend the evening porting the code to qualify for the Boost coding norms and upload it to the vault (if I can - but that should be OK). I would like you to take a look at the code and tell me what you think of it. Thanks for your time. Kind regards, Peter Bindels

8 10

Information about BMock
by Sterkin, Asher 24 Dec '09

24 Dec '09

Gennady, Recently I've came across discussion about extending the Boost.Test framework with a mocking capabilities: http://old.nabble.com/Interest-check:-Boost.Mock-td23958875.html I've even found a new header file mock_object.hpp within the 1_41 distribution, but not any documentation yet. There was a question about BMock library I developed and presented about at BoostCon09. The main differentiator of BMock from the rest of C++ frameworks I'm familiar with (except maybe MockItNow) is that it does not require neither classes, nor virtual methods. It does use heavily BOOST.Preprocessor and, at certain degree, boost meta-programming capabilities. Even though it has some historical quirks BMock has two major advantages, in my view, unsurpassable yet: a) Ability to dynamically mock ANY function or method. The function definition header needs to be wrapped with a special BMOCK_FUNCTION macro. Opposite to MockItNow this proves a fully portable solution, which does not depend on profiler API or any other low-level compiler capabilities. a) Deep integration with Boost.Test library, most importantly with its diagnostics. So far it proved itself as an extremely useful tool for embedded software development in C/C++. Attached you will find BMock documentation (sorry, not Boost standard :(). Not everything is relevant and not everything should remain, but hopefully you will get an adequate impression about how does it work from the user perspective. As I explained it to Dave during the BoostCon 09 I do not think that BMock in its current state is suitable to be a separate contribution to the Boost library, nor do I think it should be. From the beginning the BMock was conceived as a lightweight (well, as much as possible) extension to Boost.Test. If you find it interesting I will be happy to send you all sources (not too much) and to discuss how to proceed further. Regards, Asher Sterkin Asher [cid:image001.png@01CA84E9.267C30C0] <http://twitter.com/asterkin> [cid:image002.png@01CA84E9.267C30C0] <http://www.twitpic.com/photos/asterkin> [cid:image003.png@01CA84E9.267C30C0] <http://disturbingthoughts-asher.blogspot.com/> [cid:image004.gif@01CA84E9.267C30C0] <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/asher-sterkin/3/106/10a> ________________________________ This message is confidential and intended only for the addressee. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the postmaster(a)nds.com and delete it from your system as well as any copies. The content of e-mails as well as traffic data may be monitored by NDS for employment and security purposes. To protect the environment please do not print this e-mail unless necessary. An NDS Group Limited company. www.nds.com Gennady, Recently I’ve came across discussion about extending the Boost.Test framework with a mocking capabilities: [1]http://old.nabble.com/Interest-check:-Boost.Mock-td23958875.html I’ve even found a new header file mock_object.hpp within the 1_41 distribution, but not any documentation yet. There was a question about BMock library I developed and presented about at BoostCon09. The main differentiator of BMock from the rest of C++ frameworks I’m familiar with (except maybe MockItNow) is that it does not require neither classes, nor virtual methods. It does use heavily BOOST.Preprocessor and, at certain degree, boost meta-programming capabilities. Even though it has some historical quirks BMock has two major advantages, in my view, unsurpassable yet: a) Ability to dynamically mock ANY function or method. The function definition header needs to be wrapped with a special BMOCK_FUNCTION macro. Opposite to MockItNow this proves a fully portable solution, which does not depend on profiler API or any other low-level compiler capabilities. a) Deep integration with Boost.Test library, most importantly with its diagnostics. So far it proved itself as an extremely useful tool for embedded software development in C/C++. Attached you will find BMock documentation (sorry, not Boost standard L). Not everything is relevant and not everything should remain, but hopefully you will get an adequate impression about how does it work from the user perspective. As I explained it to Dave during the BoostCon 09 I do not think that BMock in its current state is suitable to be a separate contribution to the Boost library, nor do I think it should be. From the beginning the BMock was conceived as a lightweight (well, as much as possible) extension to Boost.Test. If you find it interesting I will be happy to send you all sources (not too much) and to discuss how to proceed further. Regards, Asher Sterkin Asher [2]twitter [3]twitpic [4]favicon [5]Linkedin _________________________________________________________________ This message is confidential and intended only for the addressee. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the postmaster(a)nds.com and delete it from your system as well as any copies. The content of e-mails as well as traffic data may be monitored by NDS for employment and security purposes. To protect the environment please do not print this e-mail unless necessary. An NDS Group Limited company. www.nds.com References 1. http://old.nabble.com/Interest-check:-Boost.Mock-td23958875.html 2. http://twitter.com/asterkin 3. http://www.twitpic.com/photos/asterkin 4. http://disturbingthoughts-asher.blogspot.com/ 5. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/asher-sterkin/3/106/10a

1 0

[optional] Strict Aliasing Warnings on Trunk
by Dean Michael Berris 24 Dec '09

24 Dec '09

I've recently been seeing this error more and more especially on GCC with -Wall: /home/dean/boost/boost/optional/optional.hpp:407: warning: dereferencing pointer ‘<anonymous>’ does break strict-aliasing rules /home/dean/boost/boost/optional/optional.hpp:427: note: initialized from here and: /home/dean/boost/boost/function/function_base.hpp:321: warning: dereferencing type-punned pointer will break strict-aliasing rules /home/dean/boost/boost/function/function_base.hpp:325: warning: dereferencing type-punned pointer will break strict-aliasing rules This is on Linux and GCC 4.4.1. I'm not an expert in this regard but is there a way to either silence or avoid these warnings? Anything you want me to try from my end? Thanks in advance and I hope this helps. -- Dean Michael Berris blog.cplusplus-soup.com | twitter.com/mikhailberis linkedin.com/in/mikhailberis | facebook.com/dean.berris | deanberris.com

12 40

Using Boost.Atomic for shared_ptr
by Phil Endecott 24 Dec '09

24 Dec '09

Dear All, I have just had a quick look at how easily shared_ptr could be adapted to use Helge's proposed Boost.Atomic. To me it looks very simple, but maybe someone who knows more about all this could have a look? I took the non-threaded implementation in sp_counted_base_nt.hpp as a starting point, and simply changed the two counts from long to boost::atomic<long> : boost::atomic<long> use_count_; // #shared boost::atomic<long> weak_count_; // #weak + (#shared != 0) Then, the majority of the methods don't need to change since the atomic template provides atomic versions of e.g. operator++. The one that does need more work is add_ref_lock, which I've implemented as follows: bool add_ref_lock() // true on success { while (1) { long c = use_count_; if (c == 0) return false; if (use_count_.compare_exchange_weak(c,c+1)) return true; } } There is also the question of memory barriers. I understand that things like operator++ provide the most pessimistic memory barriers, so ideally these should be replaced with calls that use the right barriers. Does anyone have any thoughts about how this would compare with the current custom assembler implementations? Cheers, Phil.

4 5

[fusion] change on trunk breaking proto
by Eric Niebler 23 Dec '09

23 Dec '09

Hi Fusion gurus. I'm chasing an elusive bug that the following Proto test has exposed: http://beta.boost.org/development/tests/trunk/developer/output/RW_WinXP_VC-… All is well on the release branch, but on trunk, Proto's examples.cpp test is failing -- but only on MSVC! I suspect Fusion because if I replace the version of Fusion on trunk with the one on release all is well. (Caveat: when I do this, I also need to make a corresponding change to the as_callable function object in proto/transform/fold.hpp to accommodate the changed argument order of fusion::fold's functor.) It seems something is causing MSVC to prematurely instantiate a template used in a Proto transform, but I can't see what. I first suspected the recent changes to fusion::fold, but that seems not to be the case. If I just take the release version of fusion::fold, the problem still manifests. The problem must be elsewhere. Does anyone from Fusion team want to give this a crack? I'll be happy to help. -- Eric Niebler BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com

4 7