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

[MPI] Dynamic linking on Windows - mpi_datatype_cache() unresolved means BOOST_IS_MPI_DATATYPE unusable?
by Pete Bartlett 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Dear all, It looks like boost::mpi::detail::mpi_data_type_cache() (in boost/mpi/detail/mpi_datatype_cache.hpp) is missing a declspec declaration, causing unresolved external symbols when trying to give a specialization of is_mpi_datatype. Is my use case (Windows, dynamic, "simple" types that qualify for is_mpi_datatype) unusual so that this hasn't been picked up before? Or am I missing something obvious? Thanks in advance for any help Pete

1 0

[lexical_cast] A suggestion
by Vladimir Batov 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

I use boost::lexical_cast quite a bit. Possibly due to specifics of my task I constantly stumble upon two things: 1. It throws if/when conversion fails; 2. It requires the 'Target' class to be default-constructible. I'd like to suggest extending the existing template<class Target, class Source> Target lexical_cast(Source const& arg) interface with template<class Target, class Source> Target lexical_cast(Source const& arg, Target const& failure_value) The behavior of the latter would be to return the 'failure_value' if/when the conversion fails. That communicates the fact of the conversion failure differently (without an exception thrown), i.e. its usage would be as following: int value = boost::lexical_cast(some-string, -1); if (value == -1) conversion failed. In fact, my usage pattern is such that I often do not even need to check the success of the conversion -- if the conversion fails, the supplied failure/default value is returned/used and proceeded with. Secondly, the proposed lexical_cast requirements would be looser -- no need for the default-constructibility of the Target, only the copy-constructibility (as already required anyway). For that the current lexical_cast implementation if(interpreter << arg) { Target result; if (interpreter >> result) return result; } throw_exception(bad_lexical_cast(typeid(Source), typeid(Target))); return Target(); // normally never reached (throw_exception) would change (for the proposed interface) to something like if(interpreter << arg) { Target result(failure_value); if (interpreter >> result) return result; } return failure_value; I am not sure how much value such an interface extension might have for others but for my usage pattern the benefit would be quite visible as the majority of our classes are with no default constructors and handling conversion-failure exceptions is quite a hassle... not to mention that for whatever guided/misguided reasons exceptions are virtually banned for our mission-critical development. Best, V.

14 40

An extension to boost::variant
by Chris Hamilton 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

While boost::variant is very capable at what it does, there is one thing it doesn't do (and maybe with very good reason, which I'm sure somebody on this list will be capable of pointing out to me if this is the case ;) Anyhow, boost::variant requires each of the enclosed types to be assignable, which is clearly not met of a reference type. My question is this: why can't boost::variant be clever about reference data types (detected using type_traits is_reference), and internally store them as pointers (type derived by using type_traits remove_reference). The outside API (assignment, output streaming, visitation, comparison, etc) could still treat the object as a reference. The reason I want this, is to have a nice String variant, that encapsulates the various forms a string can take in a current project: std::strings, char*'s, and std::string* and boost::shared_ptr<std::string>. I want functions to be able to handle all of these types transparently by using variants as the argument types. Allowing "const std::string&" as a variant type allows this to be done while not requiring a wasteful string copy. Are there any caveats to this that I should be aware of? (I have a small custom variant class implementing this, and it appears to work well. It's not as 'full fledged' as the boost::variant class, but the approach I've taken could surely be grafted on to boost::variant.) Cheers, Chris Hamilton

2 2

1.38.0 release done ?
by Stefan Seefeld 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

While I'm casually reading this ML, I notice some ongoing discussion concerning the 1.38.0 release. Looking at the boost.org website, I trip over the 1.38.0 release announcement, and I wonder whether I just missed the 1.38.0 announcement here on the list, or whether someone mistakenly announced a release-candidate for a final release. Could anybody clarify please ? Thanks, Stefan -- ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...

3 2

[graph]
by Andrew Sutton 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Update on the BGL. I've just ported my SOC work en masse from 2007 to the BGL trunk. New features include: * [un]directed_graph classes - wrappers around adjacency lists. These serve as introductory classes to help with prototyping. They also try to hide all of the problems with vertex indices and property maps - as in every algorithm requires vertex maps, but only VerteSet == vecS provides them. * degree_centraility - algorithms for computing the degree centrality of vertices in a graph. Includes measures of influence and prestige. * closeness_centraltiy - algoritghms for computing the closeness centraility (based on SSPs) for vertices in a graph. * geodesic_distance - Computes the small-world and mean geodesic distances of graphs. * eccentricity - Algorithms for computing eccentricity, and the radius and diameter of the graph. * clustering_coefficient - Returns the clustering coefficient of a vertex or the average CC for the entire graph. * core_numbers - Partitioning of a graph into cores based on vertex degree (from David Gleich) * all_cycles - Find and visit all cycles in a graph (Tiernan) * all_cliques - Find and visit all cliques in a graph (Bron & Kerbosch) * exterior_properties - A new framework for helping define exterior properties (and property maps) for graphs. New graph concepts: * VertexIndexGraph - any graph for which get(vertex_index, g) is valid * EdgeIndexGraph - any graph for which get(edge_index, g) is valid Since nearly every algorithm requires a vertex index map in one way or another, these may as well be concepts. Also, its a convenient documentary artifact that lets you write, "If your graph is not a *IndexMap, then you must provide an index map as an exterior property." Documentation for these features is forthcoming. Its part of my project to (finally) migrate the BGL docs over to quickbook. There are tests for most of these features - some are in progress - others are woefully inadequate and under development. Since I'm generally pretty busy, these will probably materialize slowly. I'm aiming at 1.40. Questions? Comments? Andrew Sutton andrew.n.sutton(a)gmail.com

3 2

[thread|interprocess] Boost.Synchro: Towards a generic view of synchronization mechanisms
by vicente.botet 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Hi, Currently there are two libraries defining mutex, condition variables and locks in Boost (Boost.Thread and Boost.Interprocess), which have similar interfaces but with some differences. This has as consequence that we can not interchange them. One of the reasons is that we are not working with concepts, and algorithms. Both boost::mutex and boost::interprocess_mutex are models of the same Lockable concept, but not because they share a common syntax but because they share a common semantics. Can we see a binary_semaphore as a Lockable? Well, usually a binary_semaphore will define operations such a post and wait, so binary_semaphore do no share the common syntax as boost::mutex and boost::interprocess_mutex. On the semantic side wait can be assimilated to lock and post to unlock. By the way, there are also other syntactical differences between the Boost.Thread and Boost.Interprocess classes. So how can we write gerenic code that can be used with every model of the concepts. The idea consist in switching from the OO paradigm to the functional paradigm. We found the same approach Boost.MPL and Boost.Fusion between others. So instead of requiring that a model of the concept Lockable defines the member functions lock and unlock, we require that the functional expressions lock(m) and unlock(m) are well founded. A generic Synchro library can define a default implementation that forwards to the member function. namespace synchro { template <typename Lockable> void lock(Lockable& lockable) { return lockable.lock(); } } Now we can overload the lock function on a binary_semaphore as namespace synchro { void lock(binary_semaphore& sem) { return sem.wait(); } } Just another example for a class template anotherLockableModel that models the Lockable concept but that with acquire/release functions. We need to overload again the lock function. namespace synchro { template< typename T> void lock( anotherLockableModel<T>& lockable ) { return lockable.acquire(); } } However, there are cases where overloads do not suffice (as described in N1295 - Partial specialization of function templates), and we need to use partial specialization of function templates. On compiler that do not support partial specialization of function templates we can use a workaround, that is, use partial specialization of class templates. The default implementation will now forward to a static function of a class which has forward to the member function namespace synchro { namespace partial_specialization_workaround { template< typename Lockable > struct lock { static void apply( Lockable& lockable ) { return lockable.lock(); } }; } template <typename Lockable> void lock(Lockable& lockable) { return partial_specialization_workaround::lock<Lockable>::apply(lockable); } } So now the user can partially specialize the class template partial_specialization_workaround::lock and define the apply function as needed: namespace synchro { namespace partial_specialization_workaround { template< typename T> struct lock <anotherLockableModel<T> >{ static void apply( anotherLockableModel<T>& lockable ) { return lockable.acquire(); } }; } } Once we have all the Lockable operations defined in this way, and do the same for ConditionVariable, we can define in a generic way unique_lock, shared_lock and upgrade_lock that works with boost::shared_mutex as boost::interprocess::interprocess_upgradable_mutex. This could leverage these libraries to define its own locks classes. Ion, Anthony, Boosters what do you think of applying this approach to get a generic Synchro library? Should the partial_specialization_workaround be applied systematicaly or it complicates things? Thanks, Vicente

2 3

[factory] Including documentation
by Rutger ter Borg 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Dear all, After about 30 minutes searching and digging I found out that apparently a Boost.Factory library is accepted into Boost, and committed to trunk under Boost.Functional. Would it be an idea to include its documentation under the main documentation as well -- or is this already done in 1.38.0? Thanks, Kind regards, Rutger ter Borg

1 0

[1.38.0] Release candidate
by Beman Dawes 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

The release candidates are up at http://boost.cowic.de/rc/ Daniel, I'd appreciate it if you could check the docs to make sure there were no glitches. I'll hold off releasing the files on SourceForge until I've heard back from you. Thanks, --Beman

3 5

[constrained-value] Some observations and questions.
by Jeroen N. Witmond [Bahco] 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Greetings, Please forgive me for intruding on the Boost Development mailing list. I'm rather new to Boost, but I'm in love with it, because IMHO it shows C++ as it should be used. :) While browsing this mailing list, I came across the review announcement[1] for the Boost Constrained Value library[2]. I like the concept, so I downloaded[3] and installed the library. I also installed file boost/utility/swap.hpp from the sandbox. I had to hack the example program[4] to get around "[boost] [utility/swap] Ambiguous overload"[5]. To get familiar with Boost and the Boost Constrained Value library, I first rewrote the example program into a Boost.Test testcase[6]. (I have tried not to disturb the documentation generated from this file, but I did not test this.) As testcase, it runs succesfully, with the hack mentioned above. (At least for me, Emacs has problems with font-lock-mode[7] on this file. The original example program does not demonstrate this problem.) In the section on Custom error policies in the example program, perhaps it should be explicitely stated that: - on entry into the error handler, constraint(new_value) will always be false. An error handler that neither changes the constraint, nor supplies a valid value can therefore throw unconditionally. - on entry into the error handler, constraint(value) will only be false during the construction of an object with an invalid value. If the error handler does not throw in this case, the library will raise signal SIGABRT (application abort requested). - the only case where the error handler can be empty is when the constraint always returns true, as in 'template <typename ValueType> class unconstrained'[8]. This code[9] illustrates these points. Next I was itching to create and more real-life use case for the Boost Constrained Value library, with special attention on improving error reporting. So I wrote four template classes[10], implementing non-positive, non-negative, positive and negative constraints over any integral type. (This code still can be improved in many ways.) These constrained integers can be declared like: positiveInteger<int> i; // Construction with value 0 would fail, BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL( i, 1 ); // so it is set to 1. They can used like teir base type. In case of constraint violations (e.g. 'i = 1;' for 'i' above), an exception is thrown, which derives from both std::logic_error and boost::exception. The std::logic_error::what() returns: Failed assert(1 <= 0); And from the boost::exception, the following information can be retrieved (slightly edited to fit the newsgroup): constrained-integer.hpp:168: In '[very long function name]': Failed assert(-1 > 0); constrained-integer.cpp:82: Constraint was defined here. See the first testcase in the Boost.Test testsuite[11] for the code that produced these messages from boost::exception. The remainder of the testsuite runs the four template classes both against fundamental types, and against classes that implement infinite precision integer arithmetic. This showed that I needed to implement 'bool operator == (const Integer & v) const' for these classes, but not for the fundamental types. As implementing this operator==() for fundamental types results in compiler errors, the implementation is present only when preprocessor symbol 'CLASS_TYPE' is defined. (My attempt to hack this in the Boost Constrained Value library source failed.) Note that no hackery is needed for the relational operators used in the constraints. Otherwise, the testsuite compiles correctly and runs almost as expected. It would appear that in the process I may have discovered a bug[12] in the mp_math library in the sandbox. One question I have is related to the requirement of the Constrained Value library that the constraint and error handler objects must be completely constructed before the constrained object is constructed. In these four template classes, I handle this by deriving my template type (e.g. nonPositiveInteger) from the constraint class and indirectly from the error handler class. The purpose is to allow these template types to be used as drop-in replacements for the types they constrain. In this context it appears to work, but I'm having second thoughts about its validity and advisability. Although it is not a Boost question, is there anybody who wants to comment? One thing that has gotten me completely stumped is deriving my own template class from constrained_value::unconstrained. Whatever I try, I get the weirdest of compiler error messages. See the bottom of [10] and [11] for my latest attempt in the section guarded by '#ifdef DO_UNCONSTRAINED'. I must be missing something obvious. Also all other comments will be appreciated. Regards, Jeroen. PS: All files referenced in this email and authored by me are released under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0[99]. Note however that this code is not of release quality. [ 1] http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2008/12/145581.php [ 2] http://student.agh.edu.pl/~kawulak/constrained_value/index.html [ 3] http://rk.go.pl/f/constrained_value.zip [ 4] file libs/constrained_value/doc/src/examples.cpp in [3]. [ 5] http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2007/10/128494.php [ 6] http://www.xs4all.nl/~jnw/boost/constrained-value/test-constrained-value.cpp [ 7] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=510475 [ 8] file boost/constrained_value/unconstrained.hpp in [3]. [ 9] http://www.xs4all.nl/~jnw/boost/constrained-value/understanding-ignore.cpp [10] http://www.xs4all.nl/~jnw/boost/constrained-value/constrained-integer.hpp [11] http://www.xs4all.nl/~jnw/boost/constrained-value/constrained-integer.cpp [12] http://lists.boost.org/boost-users/2009/01/43824.php [99] http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt

2 1

[constrained] constrained_vector
by Neal Becker 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

I'm interested in something like constrained, but applied to a vector of values. The case I'm interested in is a homogeneous vector of bounded int values, with bounds set at runtime. It is trivial to have a vector<bounded<int> >, but this would not be space efficient in the case where the policies, bounds on all the values are the same. I'm thinking that maybe some parts of constrained (such as policies) could be reused, independent of the rest of constrained. Has anyone looked into the idea of constrained vector?

3 4

[1.38.0] beta 2 release candidate
by Beman Dawes 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

The beta 1 release candidate from earlier in the week had enough issues that I decided not to push it out to sourceforge. Most (all?) of those issues have been corrected, and a new release candidate is up at http://boost.cowic.de/rc/ If no showstoppers surface I plan to move this beta to sourceforge tomorrow (Friday) and announce it here, the users list, and the announce list. The final 1.38.0 release would then come about week later. There are pending bug fixes for Boost.Python and Boost.Asio that are not in the beta but Dave and Chris are planning to have ready for the final release. --Beman

10 28

[constrained_value] Review version
by Robert Kawulak 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Hi all, I've made some minor changes to the Boost Constrained Value library: - reorganized the structure of header files, - renamed saturating/saturating_int into clipping/clipping_int, - using boost::swap where applicable (if you don't have it, you need to get it from http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/branches/release/boost/utility/swap.hpp) - made no_constraint policy public, - now the stream operators are not defined if BOOST_NO_IOSFWD macro is defined, - fixed identifiers containing "__" (not allowed by C++), - fixed minor language errors in the docs. The library is ready for the formal review, which starts this monday (1.12). It is only missing the detailed regression tests, which will be added after the review. Currently the examples file (libs\constrained_value\doc\src\examples.cpp) can be used instead -- it uses most of the functionality of the library and should compile and run returning 0. As usually, the code and documentation can be downloaded here: http://rk.go.pl/f/constrained_value.zip The documentation is also available online here: http://rk.go.pl/r/constrained_value Any comments and problem reports for platforms that has not been tested yet are very welcome. Best regards, Robert Kawulak -=##############=- "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

3 4

[constrained_value] serialization
by Neal Becker 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

constrained_value does not currently support serialization. 1. Should it be added to the lib? 2. What would be a suggested implementation?

3 5

[threadpool] new version - supporting future library (C++0x) from Anthony Williams
by k-oli＠gmx.de 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Hello, I've uploaded a new version of boost.threadpool (v17) at http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=boost-…. It uses the future implementation of Anthony Williams (C++0x - available at http://www.justsoftwaresolutions.co.uk/files/n2561 future.hpp). Please save it as file 'future'. best regards, Oliver

3 10

[interthreads] Library under development v0.4
by vicente.botet 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Hi, I have just released the version 0.4, which includes since my last publicly announced version 0.3.0: Version 0.4.0, Fevrary 8, 2009 Improvements + bug fixes New Features: * New free functions for all the AsynchronousCompletionToken operations, providing a higher degree of freedom. * Missing have_all_values(), have_all_exception() and are_all_ready() functions on AsynchronousCompletionToken fusion tuples. * get_all: getting all the values from a tuple of AsynchronousCompletionToken works now. * fork_after overloaded for a single dependency * wait_all overloaded for a single ACT. * wait_for_all evaluate one of its elements on the current thread * No need to use wait_and_get() on thread_specific_shared_ptr<> to synchronize with the decoration if the thread is created using a AsynchronousExecutor decorator. In this case the synchro is done before returning the AsynchronousCompletionToken. See the tutorial and the mono_thread_id example. Fixed Bugs: v0.2#1: ae::get_all do not work yet. get_all() do not work because fusion transform sequence function can not take non const sequences. I have emulated it using set_all() and a transformation for a tuple of _ACT to a tuple of result_type. v0.3.1#1: keep alive mechanism crash when setting set_on_dead_thread() before enabling the mechanism. This was due to the fact that there were no default data for the backup. v0.3.1#2: keep alive mechanism do not detect dead threads. We need to reset the counters only when the period is 0. v0.3.1#3: The set_on_dead_thread() setting is not recovered by embeeding kep_alive enablers/disablers. The problem is that the on_dead() the function and the thread pointer were stored on the backup. It is enough to store them on the thread_keep_alive_ctx and make the functions thread_safe. Version 0.3.1, January 25, 2009 bug fixes Fixed Bugs: v0.3#3: scheduler::do_test_fork_after_wait do not work yet. To solve this issue it enough to define boost::move for tp::task v0.3#2: scheduler::do_test_fork_after_get do not work yet. To solve this issue it enough to define boost::move for tp::task v0.3#1: scheduler::do_test_wait_for_any do not work yet. Not reproductible v0.2#2: Some trouble with the use of tp::pool directly, use scheduler instead. Four issues. The parameter to fork on tp:pool was a const F& instead of a F. Direct use of fork_all resolved for the other AsynchronousExecutor by ADL, which could not be the case for the tp::pool. fork specialization for tp::pool incorrect. use of the default handle instead of asynchronous_completion_token traits class For those who don't know the library yet here are some of its features: * An asynchronous execution framework working with AsynchronousExecutor and AsynchronousCompletionToken. It includes some generic functions working on AsynchronousExecutor and AsynchronousCompletionToken concepts: * fork and fork_all to execute functions asynchronously. * fork_after: request an AsynchronousExecutor to execute a function asynchronously once each one of AsynchronousCompletionToken in the dependency tuple parameter are ready. It is similar to the async_with_dependencies proposed Peter Dimov. * generic wait_for_all, wait_for_any to execute asynchronously functions and wait for the completion of all or any of them. * generic get, join, ... free functions to synchroyze on an AsynchronousCompletionToken * generic get_all, join_all, ... free functions to synchroyze on multiple AsynchronousCompletionTokens * Some AsynchronousExecutors and AsynchronousCompletionTokens models * basic_threader: can be seen as a thread factory executing asynchronously a function on the returned thread. * launchers: Lanchers can be seen as a future factory executing asynchronously a function on a hiden thread. * threader/joiner: A Threader runs a unary function in its own thread. A Threader can be seen as a Joiner factory executing asynchronously a function on a thread encapsulated on the returned Joiner. The joiner is used to synchronise with and pick up the result from a function or to manage the encapsulated thread. * tp::pool and tp::task customization as an AsynchronousExecutor and an AsynchronousCompletionToken respectively. tp::pool can be seen as a tp::task factory executing asynchronously a function on a pool of threads. a generic asynchronous_executor_decorator which allows to decorate the function to be evaluated asynchronously. * Some thread extension * A thread_decoration class allowing to define setup/cleanup functions which will be called only once by thread (if the thread function is decorated with thread_decorator): setup before the thread function and cleanup at thread exit. It is used together with asynchronous_executor_decorator * A thread_decorator/thread_decorate class/function which decorate a thread function in order to call the setup and the cleanup of all the thread_decorations. * A thread specific shared pointer which 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. * A 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. The library is available at Boost Sandbox: https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/interthreads and Boost Vault: http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=intert… Includes every thing on the Sandbox + Html documentation + Boost.Futures + Boost.ThreadPool adaptations I'd appreciate it if people could take a look, test it on their compiler and give me some feedback. Best regrads, Vicente Juan Botet Escribá

1 0

[1.38][any][thread] Release notes
by Daniel James 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

Hi, I've added release notes for these libraries. I don't really know the story behind these changes, so if the libraries' maintainers or an interested user wants to check them, they're at: http://beta.boost.org/users/news/version_1_38_0#version_1_38_0.updated_libr… thanks, Daniel

5 5

[1.38] CMake support added to release branch?
by John Maddock 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

I see from the 1.38 news section that experimental CMake support has been added to the release: I thought we were going to have a review before this happened? John Maddock.

8 11

function dispatch mismatch in graph_traits
by Sandeep Gupta 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

Hi, I am having trouble making leda_graph wrapper for GRAPH<vtype, etype> class. In leda_graph.hpp the wrapper is defined as template<class vtype, class etype> ... vertices(const leda::GRAPH<vtype, etype>& g) { do_something; } Given this definition the right (and only way i think) to invoke it by expression vertices<vtype, etype>(G) My problem is that all internal graph routines invoke the function by expression vertices(G) I would appreciate any ideas about how can i redirect vertices(G) to vertices<vtype, etype>(G) where vtype = vrec etype = erec G = leda::GRAPH<vrec, erec> I am afraid that i might have to rewrite a wrapper for specifically leda::GRAPH<vrec, erec>. Can this be avoided. Thanks sandeep

2 2

Review Request: Boost.Log
by Andrey Semashev 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

Hi, I'd like to ask for a formal review for the Boost.Log library. The archive with the library source code, tests and docs is available in the Vault: http://tinyurl.com/cm9lum The online docs are also available on the SourceForge page: http://boost-log.sourceforge.net The latest code snapshot can be downloaded from CVS on the SourceForge project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost-log

1 0

[1.38.0] branches/release frozen
by Beman Dawes 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

I plan to do the actual release Sunday. Please make no further commits to branches/release. If there are any known showstoppers, please let me know right away. Thanks, --Beman

6 12

[statechart] rebind -> exception_translator error
by k-oli＠gmx.de 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

Hello, I get following compile time error (using gcc version 4.3.1 on Debian/Lenny) for a test async_state_machine: /opt/boost/include/boost-1_37/boost/detail/allocator_utilities.hpp:149: error: no class template named 'rebind' in 'class boost::statechart::exception_translator<boost::statechart::exception_thrown>' regards, Oliver

2 1

build system testing
by Neil Groves 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

Hello, I have noticed that work is going ahead to introduce CMake, and possibly SCons build systems alongside bjam. Does this not introduce an explosion in required testing combinations, and is this already being addressed? I fully appreciate the attraction of adding CMake, but would like to ensure we do not add too many build systems due to the potentially excessive requirement on library developer to install a plethora of tools, and perform an enormous amount of testing. I wonder if a static analysis tool might be able to help determine the consistency of bjam to the other build systems. Anyhow, I haven't seen much discussion about testing, and if it's not tested it's probably broken! (At least if I've written it!) Regards, Neil Groves

4 3

[random] Patch for ticket 2703
by Steven Watanabe 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

AMDG In lagged_fibonacci_01, the overload of seed that takes a pair of iterators does not always detect the end of the range correctly. The attached patch fixes this and adds a test case. Ok to commit? In Christ, Steven Watanabe

2 1

[format] please add operator String()
by Thorsten Ottosen 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

Hi, In code like this: std::string columns() const { return (boost::format("%7s, %7s, %7s, %7s") % "testCost" % "optimalEcr" % "efficiecyEcr" % "testCostEcr").str(); } it is very annoying to have to put () around the whole expression and then call .str() (Just imagine that we are creating a string on the fly to a function). Therefore I suggest that we add operator string_type() const { return str(); } to the interface of basic_format<>. Any comments? -Thorsten

7 8

FW: [filesystem] : basic_path : Feature request
by Rob 07 Feb '09

07 Feb '09

> These seem like reasonable requests, although I'd have to check the > std::back_inserter to be 100% sure. > I have checked this using a wrapper around path as follows template<class String, class Traits> struct rob_basicpath : boost::filesystem::basic_path<String, Traits> { typedef string_type& reference; typedef const string_type& const_reference; inline void push_back(const_reference path) { *this /= path; } }; This allowed me to use the following code as expected (which strips . characters from the path) const boost::filesystem::path path("dir1/./dir2/./dir3"); rob_path rpath; std::remove_copy(path.begin(), path.end(), std::back_inserter(rpath), "."); > Note however that path has some but not all of the characteristics of > a standard container. I'd want to see persuasive use cases for adding > functionality - just making path more like a std container without > good reason is likely to lead to interface bloat without offsetting > benefits. My reasoning for this is as follows: 1. path is wrapper around a string, which is what would be used in the absence of path object. String supports this interface and using path should not be a step backwards. 2. A variety of tasks I envisage on a path can be neatly and succinctly implemented using std algorithms. In particular, I have several uses for copy or remove_copy to create similar paths with a slight difference. The ability to use a back_inserter allow paths to be built up from other paths or any container of strings. Without this, my solution for removing '.' involved the same code but I had to insert into a vector first and later iterate through this to create the new path. > A use case would make this [pop_back()] more compelling. My code above to remove '.' was part of a 'canonicalize' function which removed both '.' and '..' where possible. (This may be a candidate for a convenience function within the library?) My solution was as follows std::vector<std::wstring> parts; BOOST_FOREACH(std::wstring part, path) { if (L"." == part) continue; if (L".." == part && parts.size() && L".." != parts.back()) parts.pop_back(); else parts.push_back(part); } boost::filesystem::wpath simple; BOOST_FOREACH(std::wstring part, parts) simple /= part; return simple; Whilst this is IMO reasonably elegant, I still have the extra step of building my new path in a vector, then creating the path from this. The addition of pop_back() to path would allow the path to be built up without the vector. Given that path allows the path to be considered as a container of path elements, I would like to see this extended. A reverse iterator would be nice to step back from the given path up to the root. Pop_back would equate to stepping back to the parent directory and seems a useful feature. Given that there exists a function to remove the filename, this also seems to be relatively easy to implement (as an inlined function?) I have only recently discovered filesystem::path and, given my current project's requirements for directory manipulation, this is a fantastic help. Cheers Rob

5 5