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

RFC: interest in Unicode codecs?
by Cory Nelson 23 Jul '09

23 Jul '09

Is there interest in having a Unicode codec library submitted to Boost? Here is what I have (only tested with GCC 4.3 on Debian, and VC++ 2008): http://svn.int64.org/viewvc/int64/snips/unicode.hpp Right now it is pretty simple to use: transcode<utf8, utf16le>(forwarditerator, forwarditeratorend, outputiterator, traits [, maximum]); transcode<wchar_encoding, utf32be>(inputrange, outputrange, traits [, maximum]); There is also a codecvt facet which supports any-to-any. Supports UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32, in little or big endian. Has a special wchar_encoding that maps to UTF-16 or UTF-32 depending on your platform. A traits class controls error handling. -- Cory Nelson

11 30

Re: [boost] RFC: interest in Unicode codecs?
by Graham 18 Jul '09

18 Jul '09

Dear Phil, >Having said all that, I must say that I actually use the code that I >wrote quite rarely. I now tend to use UTF8 everywhere and treat it as >a sequence of bytes. Because of the properties of UTF8 I find it's >rare to need to identify individual code points. For example, if I'm >scanning for a matching " or ) I can just look for the next matching >byte, without worrying about where the character boundaries are. Using UTF-8 can work well if you are only targeting American and Western Europe for non-literary use. If you need to support the rest of the world you really need to move to UTF-32 due to the large number of characters and the grapheme and glyph handling [e.g. in Urdu you can type 3 characters and they are displayed as a single combined glyph, and the cursor should never be placed between them]. Even in UTF-8 things can get a bit tricky. For example, where do you break the line if you needed in the middle of: joe)jack -> joe) <br> jack joe(jack -> joe <br> (jack joe+jack -> guess which is the standard ! For programmers we don't mind too much, but when you are writing text editors this can be really important. Now think how many characters there are with special rules on whether they can be split before, after, or never split, and you start to touch on the reason for the Unicode standard and why you need character properties. Yours, Graham

5 4

Mark throw_exception as noreturn?
by Andrey Semashev 05 Jul '09

05 Jul '09

Hi, I was wondering why the throw_exception function is not marked as noreturn? This makes it troublesome to use it as a drop-in replacement for throw statements as it starts to flag compiler warnings about missing return statements in non-void functions. I suggest to mark the function as noreturn at least for compilers that support it. GCC has __attribute__((noreturn)), MSVC has __declspec(noreturn).

4 6

[Graph] iterator range splitting
by Tim Keitt 28 Jun '09

28 Jun '09

I've run into some problems with the Graph library as there is a lot of code that splits iterator ranges. An example of this is: (from depth_first_search.hpp) template <class VertexListGraph, class DFSVisitor, class ColorMap> void depth_first_search(const VertexListGraph& g, DFSVisitor vis, ColorMap color) { // // should the below not be: // graph_traits<VertexListGraph>::iterator vi, vend; // tie(vi, vend) = vertices(g); // if ( vi == vend ) ... ??? // or perhaps to be more terse // if ( empty_range(vertices(g)) ) // where empty_range(g) compares first and second // if (vertices(g).first == vertices(g).second) return; depth_first_search(g, vis, color, *vertices(g).first); } This is causing problems in my code where I have defined custom graph classes. In my case out_edges(g) != out_edges(g) because memory is allocated within the out_edges call and successive calls will return different ranges (vertex ranges are not a problem in my case as I use a simple counting iterator). Must out_edges(g) == out_edges(g) for a graph class to meet the Graph library requirements? If not, then a good bit of the code needs to be altered and possibly some of the iterator macros deprecated. Below I've located every instance where the first or second member of an iterator pair is thrown away. These cases are only problematic if the retained iterator is later compared to an iterator from another range. The fix is simple. One only needs to retain both members of the iterator pair. I am willing to provide a patch if it is agreed that the current code is wrong. THK egrep '(vertices|edges)\(.*\)\.(first|second)' * adjacency_list_io.hpp: for (vi = vertices(graph).first; vi != vertices(graph).second; ++vi){ adjacency_list_io.hpp: for (ei = edges(graph).first; ei != edges(graph).second; ++ei){ adjacency_list_io.hpp: for (vi = vertices(this->graph).first; vi != vertices(this->graph).second; ++vi){ adjacency_matrix.hpp: return *vertices(g).first; adjacency_matrix.hpp: return *vertices(g).first; adj_list_serialize.hpp: for (vi = vertices(graph).first; vi != vertices(graph).second; ++vi) { adj_list_serialize.hpp: for (ei = edges(graph).first; ei != edges(graph).second; ++ei){ bc_clustering.hpp: if (edges(g).first == edges(g).second) return; bc_clustering.hpp: edge_descriptor e = *max_element(edges(g).first, edges(g).second, cmp); bc_clustering.hpp: } while (!is_done && edges(g).first != edges(g).second); cuthill_mckee_ordering.hpp: if (vertices(G).first == vertices(G).second) cuthill_mckee_ordering.hpp: if (vertices(G).first == vertices(G).second) depth_first_search.hpp: if (start_vertex != implicit_cast<Vertex>(*vertices(g).first)){ vis.start_vertex(start_vertex, g); depth_first_search.hpp: if (vertices(g).first == vertices(g).second) depth_first_search.hpp: depth_first_search(g, vis, color, *vertices(g).first); depth_first_search.hpp: if (vertices(g).first == vertices(g).second) depth_first_search.hpp: *vertices(g).first), edge_connectivity.hpp: std::set_difference(vertices(g).first, vertices(g).second, edge_connectivity.hpp: std::set_difference(vertices(g).first, vertices(g).second, fruchterman_reingold.hpp: Dim minX = position[*vertices(g).first].x, maxX = minX; fruchterman_reingold.hpp: Dim minY = position[*vertices(g).first].y, maxY = minY; graph_test.hpp: bgl_first_9 = vertices(g).first, bgl_last_9 = vertices(g).second; graph_test.hpp: bgl_first_9 = vertices(g).first, bgl_last_9 = vertices(g).second; howard_cycle_ratio.hpp: if (boost::out_edges(vd1, m_g).first == boost::out_edges(vd1, m_g).second) throw bad_graph(m_vim[vd1]); howard_cycle_ratio.hpp: mcr_edge_t ed = *boost::out_edges(vd1, m_g).first; howard_cycle_ratio.hpp: good_vertex = boost::target(*boost::out_edges(good_vertex, m_pi_g).first, m_pi_g); howard_cycle_ratio.hpp: pi_edge_t tmp_ed = *(boost::out_edges(vd, m_pi_g).first); howard_cycle_ratio.hpp: remove_edge(*(out_edges(m_g2pi_g_vm[vd], m_pi_g).first), m_pi_g); is_kuratowski_subgraph.hpp: bipartition_start = next(next(next(vertices(K_3_3).first))); is_kuratowski_subgraph.hpp: si = vertices(contracted_graph).first; isomorphism.hpp: for (typename graph_traits<Graph1>::edge_iterator e1 = edges(g1).first; isomorphism.hpp: e1 != edges(g1).second; ++e1) { isomorphism.hpp: for (typename graph_traits<Graph2>::edge_iterator e2 = edges(g2).first; isomorphism.hpp: e2 != edges(g2).second && !found_edge; ++e2) { iteration_macros.hpp: bgl_first_9 = vertices(g).first, bgl_last_9 = vertices(g).second; iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = vertices(GNAME).first, BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = vertices(GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = vertices(GNAME).first, BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = vertices(GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = edges(GNAME).first, BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = edges(GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = edges(GNAME).first, BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = edges(GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = adjacent_vertices(UNAME, GNAME).first,\ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = adjacent_vertices(UNAME, GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = adjacent_vertices(UNAME, GNAME).first,\ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = adjacent_vertices(UNAME, GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = out_edges(UNAME, GNAME).first,\ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = out_edges(UNAME, GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = out_edges(UNAME, GNAME).first,\ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = out_edges(UNAME, GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = in_edges(UNAME, GNAME).first,\ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = in_edges(UNAME, GNAME).second; \ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_FIRST(__LINE__) = in_edges(UNAME, GNAME).first,\ iteration_macros.hpp: BGL_LAST(__LINE__) = in_edges(UNAME, GNAME).second; \ johnson_all_pairs_shortest.hpp: typename Traits2::vertex_descriptor s = *vertices(g2).first; kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: for (vertex_iterator ui = vertices(g).first, end = vertices(g).second; kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: vertex_iterator ui, end = vertices(g).second; kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: for (ui = vertices(g).first; ui != end; ++ui) { kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: vertex_descriptor p = *vertices(g).first; kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: for (ui = vertices(g).first; ui != end; ++ui) { kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: for (ui = vertices(g).first; ui != end; ++ui) { kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: for (ui = vertices(g).first; ui != end; ++ui) { kamada_kawai_spring_layout.hpp: for (ui = vertices(g).first; ui != end; ++ui) { king_ordering.hpp: if (vertices(G).first == vertices(G).second) king_ordering.hpp: if (vertices(G).first == vertices(G).second) metric_tsp_approx.hpp: Vertex v(*vertices(g).first); metric_tsp_approx.hpp: metric_tsp_approx_from_vertex(g, *vertices(g).first, metric_tsp_approx.hpp: metric_tsp_approx_from_vertex(g, *vertices(g).first, metric_tsp_approx.hpp: metric_tsp_approx_from_vertex(g, *vertices(g).first, metric_tsp_approx.hpp: metric_tsp_approx_from_vertex(g, *vertices(g).first, w, metric_tsp_approx.hpp: metric_tsp_approx_from_vertex(g, *vertices(g).first, w, id, vis); metric_tsp_approx.hpp: Tree t(mst, *vertices(mst).first, minimum_degree_ordering.hpp: adj_iter nu = adjacent_vertices(u_node, G).first; planar_canonical_ordering.hpp: vertex_t first_vertex = *vertices(g).first; prim_minimum_spanning_tree.hpp: choose_param(get_param(params, root_vertex_t()), *vertices(g).first), prim_minimum_spanning_tree.hpp: (g, *vertices(g).first, predecessor_map(p_map). property_iter_range.hpp: return std::make_pair(iter(vertices(graph).first, get(tag, graph)), property_iter_range.hpp: iter(vertices(graph).second, get(tag, graph))); property_iter_range.hpp: return std::make_pair(iter(vertices(graph).first, get(tag, graph)), property_iter_range.hpp: iter(vertices(graph).second, get(tag, graph))); property_iter_range.hpp: return std::make_pair(iter(edges(graph).first, get(tag, graph)), property_iter_range.hpp: iter(edges(graph).second, get(tag, graph))); property_iter_range.hpp: return std::make_pair(iter(edges(graph).first, get(tag, graph)), property_iter_range.hpp: iter(edges(graph).second, get(tag, graph))); push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: current(num_vertices(g_), out_edges(*vertices(g_).first, g_).second), push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: current[u] = out_edges(u, g).first; push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: current[v] = out_edges(v, g).first; push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: for (ai = current[u], ai_end = out_edges(u, g).second; push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: current[u] = out_edges(u, g).first; push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: for (; current[u] != out_edges(u, g).second; ++current[u]) { push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: if (current[u] == out_edges(u, g).second) { push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: ai = out_edges(u, g).first; push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: while (excess_flow[u] > 0 && ai != out_edges(u, g).second) { push_relabel_max_flow.hpp: ai = out_edges(u, g).first; random.hpp: i = vertices(g).first; random.hpp: return *vertices(g).first; random.hpp: i = edges(g).first; random.hpp: return *edges(g).first; sloan_ordering.hpp: s = *(vertices(G).first); undirected_dfs.hpp: if (start_vertex != *vertices(g).first){ vis.start_vertex(start_vertex, g); undirected_dfs.hpp: undirected_dfs(g, vis, vertex_color, edge_color, *vertices(g).first); undirected_dfs.hpp: *vertices(g).first), -- Timothy H. Keitt http://www.keittlab.org/

6 16

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

19 Jun '09

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

4 18

[mpl] is there a or_seq like logical metafunction?
by vicente.botet 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

Hello, I needs calculate the mlp::or_ of a sequence of nullary logical metafunction. This seams quite simple. I have do the following: <code> template <typename Seq> struct or_seq; template <typename Seq, long N> struct or_seq_aux : mpl::or_< typename mpl::front<Seq>::type, or_seq<typename mpl::pop_front<Seq>::type> > {}; template <typename Seq> struct or_seq_aux<Seq, 1> : mpl::front<Seq>::type {}; template <typename Seq> struct or_seq : or_seq_aux<Seq, mpl::size<Seq>::value> {}; </code> Is there a boost or_seq like logical metafunction? Is there a better way to do it? I would be extremely interested in any suggestions. Best regards --------------------------- Vicente Juan Botet Escriba

5 34

[New Feature Suggestion] Dynamic exception handlers registration
by Alex Tkachenko 17 May '09

17 May '09

Hello there. A while back I wrote usefull tool for organizing exception handling. The general idea is borrowed from boost::execution_monitor (http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_38_0/libs/test/doc/html/execution-monitor.h…) . Similarly, I call this unit "Exception Monitor". It allows to dynamically register exception converters and convert exception objects from any source types to arbitrary target type. For instance, if you write some integration code which uses several external modules, and each of these modules could generate their own tree of exceptions, you would face serious issue trying to implement error diagnostic. One approach is to handle only base exception for each module and to catch them in function main(). Let's assume that all exceptions are inherited from std::exception, so we need to catch single base (std::exception). This approach is convenient but not precise. Even if we want just to output error message using std::exception::what() we have only some general low level error description, moreover this description could be completely wrong. It doesn't reflect actual cause of the error because at the place where the exception is originally generated it couldn't know about context of execution. On the contrary, we can catch low-level exceptions in the place where execution context is more obvious and convert it to some "application" exception which contains more information about current situation. This is the solution for detailed error diagnostic, but it is too tedious. Also such code is unscalable, error prone and hard to support. Look at the following example: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// class app_error: public virtual std::exception { ... }; void foo() { try { ...local state... unit1::foo(...); unit2::foo(...); } catch(const unit1::exception1& ex) { //...convert caught exception to app_error using local state throw app_error(...); } catch(const unit1::exception2& ex) { //...convert caught exception to app_error using local state throw app_error(...); } catch(const unit2::exception& ex) { //...convert caught exception to app_error using local state throw app_error(...); } } int main() { try { foo(); } catch(const app_error& ex) { cout << "Error: " << ex.what() << endl; } catch(const std::exception& ex) { cout << "Unknown error: " << ex.what() << endl; } catch(...) { cout << "Unknown error" << endl; } } The main drawback of this source code is that exception handling is mixed with 'main' code. It would be better if we could write something like this: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// class app_error: public virtual std::exception { ... }; typedef exc::catcher<app_error> app_catcher; //...exception catcher type typedef std::list<app_catcher> app_catchers; //...container for catchers struct convert_unit1_ex1 { const app_error operator()(const unit1::exception1&); }; struct convert_unit1_ex2 { const app_error operator()(const unit1::exception2&); }; struct convert_unit2_ex { const app_error operator()(const unit2::exception&); }; app_catchers excon; void foo() { ...local state... //...register catchers for possible exceptions excon.push_front( app_catcher::create<unit1::exception1>( convert_unit1_ex1(...local state...))); excon.push_front( app_catcher::create<unit1::exception2>( convert_unit1_ex2(...local state...))); excon.push_front( app_catcher::create<unit2::exception>( convert_unit2_ex(...local state...))); //... unit1::foo(); unit2::foo(); //...good idea is to use RAII to register catchers to avoid this //...manual deregistration: excon.pop_front(); excon.pop_front(); excon.pop_front(); } int main() { try { guard(excon, foo()); } catch(const app_error& ex) { cout << "Error: " << ex.what() << endl; } catch(const std::exception& ex) { cout << "Unknown error: " << ex.what() << endl; } catch(...) { cout << "Unknown error" << endl; } } Pluses of this technique: 1) it encourages developer to implement exception handlers code separatly from 'main' code; 2) it provides framework for detailed exception handling; 3) it offers flexible means for structural arrangement of exception handlers' source code. Very interesting feature of Exception Monitor is ability to sort catchers in "proper" order regarding their inheritance. So catcher for std::runtime_error should be earlier then std::exception. This is what functions exc::insert and exc::replace do. Library source code (it's tested it on gcc 4.3.1): #ifndef EXCEPTION_MONITOR_HEADER_GUARD #define EXCEPTION_MONITOR_HEADER_GUARD /* * Exception Monitor: * allowes dynamic exception handlers registration * Author: Alex Tkachenko * 2009.02.10 */ #include <cassert> #include <boost/function.hpp> #include <boost/static_assert.hpp> #include <boost/type_traits/is_base_of.hpp> #include <boost/shared_ptr.hpp> #include <typeinfo> namespace exc { namespace details { class failed_to_catch_exception {}; //... class try_catcher_base { public: virtual ~try_catcher_base() {} virtual void convert() const = 0; virtual void try_throw_self_exception() const = 0; virtual bool try_catch_self_exception( const try_catcher_base& other) const = 0; virtual const std::type_info& type() const = 0; }; template<typename Texception_to, typename Texception_from> class try_catcher: public try_catcher_base { typedef boost::function<const Texception_to (const Texception_from&)> converter_f; public: try_catcher(const converter_f& iconverter): converter(iconverter) { assert(!converter.empty() && "Null converter"); } private: void convert() const { try { throw; } catch(const Texception_from& ex) { throw converter(ex); } catch(...) { throw failed_to_catch_exception(); } } void try_throw_self_exception() const { throw (Texception_from*)0; } bool try_catch_self_exception(const try_catcher_base& other) const { try { other.try_throw_self_exception(); } catch(Texception_from*) { return true; } catch(...) { return false; } } const std::type_info& type() const { return typeid(Texception_from); } //... converter_f converter; }; }//...namespace details template<typename Texception_to> class catcher { typedef boost::shared_ptr<details::try_catcher_base> impl_t; catcher(const impl_t& iimpl): impl(iimpl) { assert(impl && "NULL catcher implementation"); } void convert() const { impl->convert(); } void try_throw_self_exception() const { impl->try_throw_self_exception(); } bool try_catch_self_exception(const catcher& other) const { return impl->try_catch_self_exception(*other.impl); } public: typedef Texception_to Texception_to_type; template<typename Texception_from> static const catcher create( const boost::function<const Texception_to (const Texception_from&)> converter) { //...it's senseless to convert from derived to base exception, //...or convert exception to its own type BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT( (!boost::is_base_of<Texception_to, Texception_from>::value)); return catcher( impl_t( new details::try_catcher<Texception_to, Texception_from>( converter))); } //... const std::type_info& type() const { return impl->type(); } void swap(catcher& rhs) { impl.swap(rhs.impl); } private: template<typename Treturn, typename Tcatchers> friend Treturn guard( const Tcatchers& catchers, const boost::function<Treturn ()>& func); template<typename TcatchersIterator> friend TcatchersIterator find( TcatchersIterator begin, TcatchersIterator end, const typename std::iterator_traits<TcatchersIterator>::value_type& catcher); //... impl_t impl; }; template<typename Treturn, typename Tcatchers> Treturn guard( const Tcatchers& catchers, const boost::function<Treturn ()>& func) { assert(!func.empty() && "Empty function"); typedef typename Tcatchers::value_type::Texception_to_type Texception_to_type; try { return func(); } catch(...) { const typename Tcatchers::const_iterator end(catchers.end()); for(typename Tcatchers::const_iterator iter(catchers.begin()); end != iter; ++iter) { try { iter->convert(); } catch(const Texception_to_type&) { throw; } catch(details::failed_to_catch_exception) { //...try next handler } } throw; } } template<typename Tcatchers> inline void guard( const Tcatchers& catchers, const boost::function<void ()>& func) { guard<void, Tcatchers>(catchers, func); } template<typename Texception_to> inline bool operator==( const catcher<Texception_to>& lhs, const catcher<Texception_to>& rhs) { return lhs.type() == rhs.type(); } template<typename Texception_to> inline bool operator!=( const catcher<Texception_to>& lhs, const catcher<Texception_to>& rhs) { return !(lhs == rhs); } template<typename Texception_to> inline void swap(catcher<Texception_to>& lhs, catcher<Texception_to>& rhs) { lhs.swap(rhs); } template<typename TcatchersIterator> TcatchersIterator find( TcatchersIterator begin, TcatchersIterator end, const typename std::iterator_traits<TcatchersIterator>::value_type& catcher) { for(;end != begin; ++begin) if(begin->try_catch_self_exception(catcher)) return begin; return end; } template<typename Tcatchers> void insert(Tcatchers& catchers, const typename Tcatchers::value_type& catcher) { typename Tcatchers::iterator iter( exc::find(catchers.begin(), catchers.end(), catcher)); catchers.insert(iter, catcher); } template<typename Tcatchers> void replace(Tcatchers& catchers, const typename Tcatchers::value_type& catcher) { typename Tcatchers::iterator iter( exc::find(catchers.begin(), catchers.end(), catcher)); if(catchers.end() == iter) catchers.push_back(catcher); else if(catcher == *iter) *iter = catcher; else catchers.insert(iter, catcher); } } //...namespace exc #endif /*EXCEPTION_MONITOR_HEADER_GUARD*/

2 1

[RFC] thread::access_monitor
by Gregory Petrosyan 14 May '09

14 May '09

I would like to hear your comments on the idea behind access_monitor template, which ensures (at compile-time) that data, protected by it, can be accessed only with associated lock held. It can be useful when you want to expose all the native interface of your data type (STL container, for example): in such a case, using ordinary monitor pattern is almost impossible. Example usage: typedef access_monitor<data_type, mutex_type> data_access_monitor; void f(data_access_monitor const& d) { data_access_monitor::value_type const* data; data_access_monitor::lock_type lock; boost::tie(data, lock) = d.const_lock(); // do something with data here } Code: #include <boost/thread.hpp> #include <boost/tuple/tuple.hpp> template <typename T, typename Lockable> struct access_monitor { typedef T value_type; typedef boost::unique_lock<Lockable> lock_type; private: typedef boost::detail::thread_move_t<lock_type> lock_move_type; public: boost::tuple<value_type const*, lock_move_type> const_lock() const { lock_type lock(mutex_); return boost::make_tuple(&data_, lock.move()); } boost::tuple<value_type*, lock_move_type> lock() { lock_type lock(mutex_); return boost::make_tuple(&data_, lock.move()); } private: // mutex_ is guaranteed to be locked when you access data_ mutable Lockable mutex_; T data_; }; Sorry for draft-quality code (however, something like the above compiles with MSVC 9). Please CC me, because I am not subscribed. Gregory

2 1

[scope_exit] Boost.ScopeExit capturing 'this'
by adam.butcher＠selex-comms.com 11 May '09

11 May '09

I wasn't sure whether I had the correct address for Boost.ScopeExit's author Alexander Nasonov, so I've submitted to this list just in case and to get feedback from other users. I have been playing with BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT -- it it very convenient. One thing I would have liked would be to capture 'this' inside member functions. I have created a patch which adds BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_THIS to do just that. It provides an operator->() in the generated struct which can be used to access the enclosing class's members. The syntax is: BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_THIS( (&a) (&b) ) { a; b; // local captures (*this)->member; // member access } BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_END; and can be BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_THIS() { (*this)->member; } BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_END; providing the preprocessor allows for empty parameter lists (which gcc does and vc does albeit after disabling a warning to remove noise). The type pointed to by the result of operator->() is correctly cv qualified. It has been tested on gcc 4.3, gcc 4.2, msvc 7.1 and msvc 9.0. I don't have access to other compilers. Boost.Typeof worked fine on gcc for typeof(this) -- mostly because gcc has a native typeof I guess. On visual studio (vc71 and vc90) it was not so good -- a compiler bug ( http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?Feedba… , http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?Feedba… ) that has been marked as 'Won't fix' means that 'this' cannot be used in expressions within template argument lists -- even if those expressions are innocuous typeid()s or sizeof()s for type-inference. The common workaround (capturing a compile-time integer with an enumerator and using the enumerator in the template parameter list) doesn't work with the vc71-specific implementation of Boost.Typeof since it is based on typeid() -- this cannot be captured in a compile-time expression (or I know of no way to that doesn't involve the expression existing in a template argument list). All is not lost though -- the general-purpose sizeof() based approach for the other VC versions works fine for VC71 for determining the typeof 'this'. As such my patch includes a VC>=1300 specific workaround for typeof 'this' determination. This is unfortunate but I couldn't think of any other non-intrusive way of doing it. Please find the attached patch and let me know what you think -- I'm sure this feature would be useful to users -- it saves having to do: TypeOfMyClassWhichCouldBeTedious* self = this BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT( (&self) ) { self->member; } BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_END; which removes the convenience of BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT in these contexts since something like: struct at_end { TypeOfMyClassWhichCouldBeTedious* self; ~at_end() { self->member; } } at_end = {this}; can be done without any dependencies to achieve the same result. Regards, Adam. ------------------------------------------------------------ This email and any attached files contains company confidential information which may be legally privileged. It is intended only for the person(s) or entity to which it is addressed and solely for the purposes set forth therein. If you are not the intended recipient or have received this email in error please notify the sender by return, delete it from your system and destroy any local copies. It is strictly forbidden to use the information in this email including any attachment or part thereof including copying, disclosing, distributing, amending or using for any other purpose. In addition the sender excludes all liabilities (whether tortious or common law) for damage or breach arising or related to this email including but not limited to viruses and libel. SELEX Communications Limited is a Private Limited Company registered in England and Wales under Company Number 964533 and whose Registered Office is Lambda House, Christopher Martin Rd, Basildon, SS14 3EL. England.

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Proposed templated integer_sort
by Steven Ross 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

Would there be interest in an integer_sort call that is faster than std::sort? Spreadsort is an in-place hybrid radix-based and comparison-based algorithm with better worst-case and average-case (roughly 20-50%) performance than introsort on random integer data. The worst-case advantage is algorithmic, with Spreadsort taking the better of O(n(square_root(bit_sizeof(data) - log(n)))) and O(nlog(n)) time. For 32-bit integers, that's O(n(square_root(32 - log(n)))), so for a log(n) of 16 (65536 items), it's 4n (plus a small constant times n), vs 16n for introsort. For larger n, the advantage vs. pure comparison-based algorithms increases. In effect, Spreadsort smoothly transitions from pure MSB Radix sort to std::sort with its data cut up by a couple iterations of MSB Radix sort (reducing the size of the log(n) factor), depending upon the distribution and size of the data. I could write a templated version of Spreadsort for the Boost library if there is interest. It would work for anything that supports the << and - operators. It could also handle standard floats sorted as integers. Functors supporting << and - could make it more general. Multi-dimensional sorting is also sped up by Spreadsort. I could also write a similar string_sort, that should also be significantly faster than std::sort. This would look much like postal sort, just using introsort after a certain number of iterations. Is this of interest? http://sourceforge.net/projects/spreadsort

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