February 2010 - Boost - lists.preview.boost.org

Re: [boost] [Review] ITL
by Wuttke Peter 27 Feb '10

27 Feb '10

To Begin with the most important point: YES, boost::ITL should be accepted as a boost library. (Please be don't be to disappointed of my english, for i'm a developer from Germany, and this would be my first review on Boost). The ITL (interval template library) is a very valueable part of our (the Cortex Software GmbH, incidently the company i work for) daily development routine. In our industry (which is health care) sampling of Status-Informations for collections of evaluations (in … [View More]

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[random] new documentation
by Steven Watanabe 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

AMDG This is hopefully the final version of the work I did back in November to convert the Random docs to Quickbook/Doxygen/Boostbook. I've uploaded the generated documentation to http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~swatanabe/random_doc/libs/random/doc/html/ The patch itself is rather large, even compressed, so I uploaded it to http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~swatanabe/random.patch.zip Okay to commit? In Christ, Steven Watanabe

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[exception] virtual inheritance troubles
by Eric Niebler 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

In xpressive, I'm trying to follow the recommended use of Boost.Exception and use virtual inheritance in my exception class, regex_error. I'm also trying to hew as closely as possible to the standard, which says that regex_error should inherit from std::runtime_error. However, this simple use of Boost.Exception does not compile: #include <string> #include <exception> #include <boost/throw_exception.hpp> #include <boost/exception/exception.hpp> … [View More]

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[forward] looking for help to keep MSVC7.1 from ICEing
by Tobias Schwinger 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Hello, I'm trying to make Forward release-ready and I'd really like to support MSVC 7.1 which is currently ICEing (in msc1.cpp, line 2701). According to online research that ICE typically occurs when the ODR is violated and the compiler fails to diagnose it. Although the code should be valid, it's likely to be about name management. The code uses an inheritance chain to add call operators of different arities. IOW the class template for arity N inherits from the class template for arity N-1.… [View More]

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Boost.Polygon : How to deal with per point attributes
by philippe.lamontagne.2＠ens.etsmtl.ca 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Hi Boost community, I am currently experimenting with the BOOST polygon library and I have a few questions. Question 1: For my specific application the points inside the polygons need to contain attributes in addition to their x and y coordinates. This extra information is required in a per-point basis. I need to compute intersections and differences of polygons. The operations can be performed regardless on the attributes, but it's important that the attributes be present in the polygons … [View More]

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[Boost][Container] Non mandatory template parameter not defaulted
by Mathieu - 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Hi, I was reading the boost.container vector sources, and I can't figure how this vector instantiations can work : boost::container::vector<int> foo; considering that the vector definition looks like : template <typename T, typename A> vector; As the second template parameter A has no default type, I believe it's actually mandatory but it's not the case as this : boost::container::vector<Type> compiles fine. I've been reading through the whole source file but I can't … [View More]

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[filesystem] 1.40 documentation refers to wrong API version?
by Johan Nilsson 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Hi, the Boost.Filesystem documentation at e.g.: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_40_0/libs/filesystem/doc/reference.html#Ope… seems to refer to more recent version. As a specific example, there are no overloads of remove in 1.40 that accepts an instance of boost::system::error_code (as opposed to what the documentation indicates) - easily verifiable in e.g.: http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/tags/release/Boost_1_40_0/boost/filesystem/o… Is the actual 1.40 documentation available online somewhere? / Johan

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Re: [boost] review system in place is extremely slow? (was Re: [rfc] rcpp)
by Brian Wood 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Mathias Gaunard writes: >> Currently there are a lot of libraries to review, but no review managers. >> That means that the user community don't want to spend a little bit of >> their time to manage a review. >> >> In addition, the last review didn't had too much of reviewers >> (I'm also concerned by this point) > > So you can see, indeed, that this is fairly concerning. I think this may be due to economic changes. When Boost was getting started the … [View More]

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Re: [boost] review system in place is extremely slow? (was Re: [rfc] rcpp)
by Brian Wood 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

On 02/25/2010 11:56 AM, Nevin Liber wrote: > Then comes the "which jobs do we pay for?". If a reviewer > spends 80 hours doing a detailed review, should we pay > them too? What about all the people who tirelessly work > on getting a release out the door every quarter? Why > should they work "for free" if other people are getting paid? I thought about some of these things as well.... I think release managers should be paid as well and more than review managers. For reviewers,… [View More]

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Fwd: [Boost-users] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Joachim Faulhaber 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Hi, this question of Mathias was posted in both [Boost-users] and [boost] but the answer was accidentally send to [Boost-users] only. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Joachim Faulhaber <afojgo(a)googlemail.com> Date: 2010/2/23 Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th To: boost-users(a)lists.boost.org 2010/2/23 Mathias Gaunard <mathias.gaunard(a)ens-lyon.org>: > Hartmut Kaiser wrote: > >> Interval containers allow to … [View More]access and manipulate collections of >> intervals >> on an abstract level as sets and maps (of elements), but also to exploit >> segmental information that is given by the interval borders. Interval >> containers are fairly generic. They can be instantiated with discrete >> domain >> (or key) types like integral numeric types or boost::date or time types. >> But >> they also work with continuous domain types like double, rational or >> string. >> Using the latter allows to represent infinite sets and maps. >> >> The interface of the interval containers strives to be very intuitive and >> in >> line with the stl and other boost libraries. >> >> * The set theoretic operations union, difference, intersection >> and symmetric difference are available as operators for all >> interval containers and for many useful overloads between them. > > I have no knowledge of the problem domain (nor did I actually look at the > library yet, sorry about that), but I simply have a question: how does this > compare to geometry libraries or spatial indexes that provide that kind of > facilities for arbitrary dimensions? > > I certainly wouldn't want to force over-generalization to the authors, but I > am wondering how much is gained by limiting things to one dimension. So can this library survive in a field of power called boost of an ever abstracting ever generalizing and ever optimizing bunch of thinkers? A few points: * Geometry usually is based on a numeric coordinate type that comes with a distance measure. Many algorithms in geometry libraries rely on that. Intervals and interval containers of the ITL, similar to SortedAssociativeContainers, only require a strict weak ordering on their key type. So interval containers are less restricted and allow for a larger class of instantiations. You may for example want to work with interval sets of strings. * Interval containers implement interval combining styles that can be useful in providing and manipulating certain time grids. E.g. http://www.herold-faulhaber.de/boost_itl/doc/libs/itl/doc/html/boost_itl/ex… I'm not aware of something like that in geometry. * There are not only interval sets but also interval maps. itl::interval_map is the real workhorse in those real world applications that already exist. interval_maps provide a general idiom of aggregation of associated values. This idiom is very useful for computing statistical data through aggregation that occur in time. * Sometimes a more simple and basic class of data structures is advantageous. It may be simpler to implement optimizations. Like Lukes Manhattan integral polygons compared to more general GGL polygons. * Transfer of geometry knowledge to the more simple models of interval sets and maps may be a step users may not come up with. * The basic set and map concepts of the ITL allow for a variety of applications that may go beyond the scope of geometry. One such example is the self compressing large bitset, which not really has the look and feel of geometry ... http://www.herold-faulhaber.de/boost_itl/doc/libs/itl/doc/html/boost_itl/pr… ... or the example of a system of authorisations. See the example user_groups http://www.herold-faulhaber.de/boost_itl/doc/libs/itl/doc/html/boost_itl/ex… * Well known data structures from geometry like interval_tree or spatial indices do have different focuses and different applications. An interval_tree is more space efficient than an interval_map that can computes all overlaps at once. This may be desired if you need all of them. If you don't and you have reoccurring arbitrary stabbing queries interval_trees are the better choice. * itl::Maps are defining a generalized addition, which I think is a quite powerful feature that accounts for most of the goodies in the applications that we have done. This addition function is a generalisation of the common insert function on SortedAssociativeContainers and it introduces the aggregating properties of itl::Maps. The aggregate on overlap idiom is independent of the question, if the domain_type of the map or interval_map is a scalar or a tuple (has dimensions) or something else. There are already interesting applications of aggregations using itl::maps of tuples, but this exceeds the scope of the core library. Cheers, Joachim [View Less]

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[date_time] int64 overflow bug with subsecond duration
by Zachary Turner 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Consider the following code, very simple in nature: static const boost::gregorian::date windows_epoch_base(1601, 1, 1); date_time d(windows_epoch_base, microseconds(12908391903991608)); This should resolve to sometime in early 2010 Now, the problem is that this number is already really big, not that many factors of 10 away from the int64 overflow boundary. microseconds() is really just the subsecond_duration<> template, and on my machine it's being parameterized as subsecond_duration… [View More]

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[move] will boost::rv work with types with virtual destructor?
by DE 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

sorry for a dumb question i noticed boost move lib mentioned in a recent message and decided to look at it i noticed that destructor for boost::rv class is declared but not defined so it can no longer be generated automatically then if an arbitrary type has a virtual destructor and we want to parameterize the boost::rv template with it a vtable for the boost::rv<type> must be generated among other things it must hold a pointer to rv<type>::~rv which is not defined is that really a problem? -- Pavel

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Spirit V1.8 to V2.1 Porting Errors
by Alireza Bemanian 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Hi, Trying to port the code to V2.1, a number of redefinition errors get generated by the compiler. The first instance is the extern InterLockedIncrement variable at line 73 of the interlocked.hpp file. The code is segmented for different platforms using #if #elif and so on directives. The project is at the same time ported from Visual Studio 2008 to 2010 RC1, and the redefinition error is caused by compiler not excluding parts of that file. The define by the Visual Studio is the … [View More]

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Re: [boost] is review system in place is extremely slow? (wasRe:[rfc] rcpp)
by Pete Bartlett 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

>From Robert Ramey > > to move those 3 libraries to the 'detail' namespace > > of Boost.Task and have review as it is, as opposed to waiting. What > > do you think? >I think I caught hell for doing something similar in the serialization >library. I had to make a number of components such as >BOOST_STRONGTYPEDEF, state_saver, smart_cast, etc. >which I put into boost - (not detail) and year afterwards this >was raised as a huge problem. And this was even … [View More]

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typeof or similar
by Steffen Roeber 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Hi, I have 3 classes: 1. class Base { public: virtual Base *createDerived() { return 0; } }; 2. template <class T> class BaseT : public Base { public: virtual Base *createDerived() { return new DerivedT<T>(); //nicht smart, because DerivedT must be known } }; 3. template <class T> class DerivedT : public BaseT<T> { }; So far so good. Or not. But now the problems are starting. Base *base = new BaseT<int>; … [View More]

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phoenix docs hidden
by Neal Becker 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

In 1.42, there is no link at top level docs to phoenix. It's fairly hidden under spirit. Isn't phoenix intended to be used independently?

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[phoenix] typo in docs
by Neal Becker 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

In algorithms doc: for_each(r, c) << Shouldn't that say 'foreach(r, f)' to match this: for_each(begin(r), end(r), f)

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[fusion] make_unfused_generic broken
by Rutger ter Borg 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Hello, apparently the header #include <boost/fusion/functional/generation/make_unfused_generic.hpp> got broken somewhere in the upgrade process, including it yields lots of errors. Boost version 1.42. (replaced with make_unfused?) Cheers, Rutger

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Re: [boost] [msm] scalability
by Christophe Henry 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

>Sorry for the delay. That is awesome Christoffe! I've turned off /Gm for >all my projects and my state machine now compiles in the 6-sec range, >and Incredibuild is able to keep the entire compile farm running at >capacity. You shaved >30% off my full build times. Great :) In case your state machines grow bigger, you can also give a try with the "faster compile" policy which I will further improve after inclusion. I think we should make /Gm a forbidden option. I will of course … [View More]

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Re: [boost] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Jeff Flinn 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Hartmut Kaiser wrote: > Hi all, > > The formal review of the Interval Template Library (ITL) starts today, > February 18th, 2010 and will end February 27th, 2010. ITL is being developed by Joachim Faulhaber. > > ------------------------------------------------ > > About the library: > > The Interval Template Library (ITL) is a library of interval containers that > facilitates computations on collections of intervals and associated values. ... Hmm, … [View More]

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Review of Interval Template Library (ITL) for inclusion
by Eric Jonas 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

At the outset, I want to say that I enthusiastically support the inclusion of this library in Boost. I also encourage others without a specific application in mind to check out the library, as there are a lot of fun examples that you might later find useful in other coding projects. My Background -------------- My background: I develop combined hardware and software systems for recording from high-throughput neural systems. One of the primary challenges we face with such systems is the … [View More]aggressive demands that 10 GB/hour of time-series data places on a typical workstation when you want to visualize it -- especially in real time, with appropriate historical context, at multiple zoom levels. I wrestled with this problem for a great deal of time before settling on various rendering and caching mechanisms. But the number one challenge was efficiently representing the temporal regions that had been viewed, those that had been rendered, and those that had been cached. Then I needed to propagate this state information through a complex dataflow pipeline. ITL solved this problem for me, in a way that honestly freed me from having to think about a lot of the unsavory low-level details. Specifics ------------ All of my work has been on Linux with a modern (4.3+) gcc. I have had collaborators build and use the resulting artifacts on OS X. I originally only anticipated needing interval_sets, but interval_maps became extremely useful as I started to keep track of metadata in my timing epochs. The segregation of interval_* and split_interval_*, while not necessary for my application, provides historical context that I can imagine being useful in some scenarios. What is your evaluation of the documentation? --------------------------------------------- I'd say the documentation was "Boost-quality", but some might see that as pejorative :) The tutorial had me up and running quickly, and the extensive examples helped me map my ideas to the library's primitives. How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? ------------------------------------------------------------------- I have used this library in production code that I have shipped to users, and have been working with it for several months. What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? ------------------------------------------------------------------- For my applications, it was crucial -- they would have been far less optimal (both from a software-engineering and asymptotic perspective) without ITL. The examples showcase a wider range of potential applications, especially the use of an example "Project" as a more complex example. Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? ------------------------------------------------ As a consumer of many boost libraries for many years, from the simple (shared_tr) to more esoteric (variant) to completely crazy (fusion), I feel like I have a good sense of modern C++ API aesthetic. As someone who spends a great deal (too much) of his life working with time-series data structures, I am familiar with many of the underlying algorithms and data-structures. ...Eric Jonas Eric Jonas (jonas(a)mit.edu) PhD Candidate, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences [View Less]

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[math] long double autoconfiguration
by Vladimir Prus 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi, at present, Boost.Math library always tries to compile long long versions of the function, unless explicit --disable-long-long is passed by the user. I have just checked in a patch that attempt to automatically determine if long long is available. Attached is a sample output of "bjam --with-math" build. The detection is done by compiling new file named libs/math/src/long_double_check.cpp -- if it compiles, it is assumed long double works. Unfortunately, I don't really know what kind of … [View More]

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virtual function templates
by strasser＠uni-bremen.de 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi, is there interest in a boost utility to implement (pseudo-) virtual function templates? real virtual function templates are obviously not possible without a JIT-compiler, but if all derived types are known to the base type, something like the following is. I've used a non-generic form of this a couple of times: struct base : enable_vtemplate<derived1,derived2>{ template<class OutputIterator> void f(OutputIterator it){ BOOST_VTEMPLATE(f,(OutputIterator),(it)); it … [View More]

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shortest path between vertex A and B
by Alexandre de Morais Amory 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi, I am starting to use BGL. I manage to read/write in dot format, add few attribs, etc. my next task is to get the set of vertex in the shortest path between vertex A and B. In a graph like this: a - b b - c c - d assuming 'a' and 'c', the result would be {a,b,c}. I know it sounds silly, but most similar examples I could find are much more complex than this. I guess breadth_first_search would solve the problem, but I am having trouble with the visitor concept... how to implement a … [View More]

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[thread] compile errors on Sandia-intel-10.1/11.0/11.1
by Emil Dotchevski 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

The error below is detected building a couple of Boost Exception tests that use Boost Thread. Thanks Noel and Steven for helping diagnose the problem. "/opt/intel/Compiler/11.1/067/bin/intel64/icpc" -xc++ -w1 -O0 -g -inline-level=0 -vec-report0 -DBOOST_ALL_NO_LIB=1 -DBOOST_THREAD_BUILD_LIB=1 -DBOOST_THREAD_POSIX -I".." -c -o "/Volumes/Scratch/kbelco/boost/results/boost/bin.v2/libs/thread/build/intel-darwin-11.1/debug/link-static/threading-multi/pthread/thread.o" "../libs/thread/src/pthread/… [View More]

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[Regex & ICU] boost::regex & icu compilation warnings: missing #pragma pack(pop)
by Henry Tan 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

Wondering if this is a known issue and there is a solution to fix this build warning when you are compiling boost::regex with ICU library. >warnings in directory d:\ >d:\boost_1_41\boost\regex\v4\u32regex_iterator.hpp(25) : warning C4103: 'd:\boost_1_41\boost\regex\v4\u32regex_iterator.hpp' : alignment changed after including header, may be due to missing #pragma pack(pop) >d:\boost_1_41\boost\regex\v4\u32regex_iterator.hpp(187) : warning C4103: 'd:\boost_1_41\boost\regex\v4\… [View More]

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[exception] help needed diagnosing Sandia-intel-10.1/11.0/11.1 failures
by Emil Dotchevski 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

See the following logs, which seem identical, and it isn't clear to me what's wrong: http://tinyurl.com/yzjo8v4 http://tinyurl.com/ygooqj7 http://tinyurl.com/yjp3n68 Ideas? Emil Dotchevski Reverge Studios, Inc. http://www.revergestudios.com/reblog/index.php?n=ReCode

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[thread][config] VC10RC fails compiling when using thread library (BOOST_NO_RVALUE_REFERENCES)
by Hartmut Kaiser 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

Hey all, the new 'un-definition' of BOOST_NO_RVALUE_REFERENCES for VC10 breaks compilation of code using the thread library. Is it a problem of VC10 or the thread library? Regards Hartmut --------------- Meet me at BoostCon www.boostcon.com

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Re: [boost] Boost Graph library - r_c_shortest_paths
by Andrew Sutton 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

> I checked the files I sent you and they were the correct versions (all > three code files: the test file, the example file, and > r_c_shortest_paths.hpp). The test and example files both run without any > problems on my system (WIN XP 32 SP 3, MS Visual C++ 2008). > I've finally had some time to go through the resubmission. There are/were a number of issues that need to be addressed. First, property maps, functors, and visitors are virtually always passed by value. If those … [View More]

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Re: [boost] [msm] scalability
by Christophe Henry 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

David Abrahams wrote: > The idea would be to do all parts that are “hard on the compiler” > at runtime. I don't see why you should have to sacrifice features. I promised to make an analysis of which feature costs how much compile-time and test your point. I hope to bring a beginning of an answer and hope you will enjoy the trip to VC++ world ;-) I took the iPod example from the last BoostCon and compile it with VC8 and VC9 in Debug and Release. I think it is an interesting example: … [View More]submachines, orthogonal regions, a good number of states. I also took the MPLLimitTest example (80 transitions, 80 states) to check a wide state machine not factored into any submachines. Both can be found in the sandbox in libs/msm/doc (/iPod or directly for the MPLLimitTest). So, the results: VC9 (Release): 60s VC9(Debug): 79s VC8(Release): 64s VC8(Debug): 183s (!!!) Notice how debug takes so much longer, as rightly noticed by Jeff. Part1: we now move the submachines into different headers, simply included in the main application. Should change nothing, right? First small surprise, it helps VC8 in Debug: VC9 (Release): 65s VC9(Debug): 80s VC8(Release): 68s VC8(Debug): 166s I didn't see why Debug took so much longer, so I played a bit with the compiler options until I found the culprit. If we now deactivate the /Gm option ("Enable minimal rebuild") in Debug (not activated in Release), we now see a big difference: VC9(Debug): 58s VC8(Debug): 62s Waow! 20s better for VC9, 102 for VC8. This could explain Jeff's problems. This is what I call a successful optimization from the compiler to create a minimal rebuild. Now Debug builds are faster than Release (due to shorter link time if you ask). Part2: This is nice but we did not add any new policy for faster compiling yet. I now add one. Unfortunately, reducing the number of template instantiations proved to be a hard business as most of removed instantiations which were "hard on the compiler" were still done somewhere else and VC is clever enough not to repeat itself. On the MPLLimitTest it gives: Before: VC9(Release): 134s VC9(Debug): 135s (without /Gm. Otherwise count 275!) VC8(Release): crash :( (ok this is really a hard test) VC8(Debug): I stopped after the compiler used up 3,5GB of my 4GB... after: VC9(Release): 84s VC9(Debug): 84s VC8(Release): crash :( VC8(Debug): 153s Ok better. It can be also better for the iPod example as the policy allows you to move some of the metaprogramming for submachines to other TUs and compile with 3 cores (one fsm, 2 submachines) using /MP (available on VC8 and VC9). See in the doc the example in iPod/Part2. We now have the following compile time (using 3 cores): VC9(Release): 44s VC9(Debug): 37s VC8(Release): 50s VC8(Debug):40s This looks much better as it allows the clever user to build submachines and enjoy better compile times. For cases where performance is needed, simply omit the submachines' cpp files from build. The trick works using a boost::any to contain the event, thus allowing you to avoid instantiating a process_event inside the main machine process_event. The only feature you lose with this policy is the new possibility to make a derived event fire his basis event's transition (any can recognize only strict types). So this is the current state. But it can be better. We still pay for the instantiation of submachines into the main machine, which still costs you time. I made a test using a proxy for submachines. The proxy containing only a void* to the real submachine, instantiating it is cheap. It's not finished but we now build on 5 cores (the main fsm, 2 for each submachine, 2 submachines). Yes we can now build a submachine on 2 cores :) This gives us the possible future compile-time: VC9(Release): 34s VC9(Debug): 27s VC8(Release): 40s VC8(Debug):30s I hope this will make the compile-time problem more manageable. Again, more to come on this later. Jeff, if you could give it a try, it would be really great! Christophe PS: I am using a Q6600, 4 cores, 2.4GHz, no hyperthreading. We can soon use the new hexacore with hyperthreading :) [View Less]

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[geometry] Documentation prototype for review
by Mateusz Loskot 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

Hi, I'm working on documentation of Boost Geometry based on Quickbook and I've prepared a prototype: http://mateusz.loskot.net/tmp/ggl/qbk/ What I'm doing is manually porting the content from Doxygen-based (http://geometrylibrary.geodan.nl/) plus restructuring, reformatting and completing it with missing details. I'd like to ask everyone who is interested in Boost Geometry library for comments, impressions and suggestions of improvements. Note, nodes marked with (?) are not finished and … [View More]

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[build] summary at end
by Vladimir Prus 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

FYI, Previously, I've made the build process to print information as to where the headers and libraries are to be found. However, that was printed at the start of the build, and many used missed that. I've now checked in a patch to print the message at the end of the build (if there are no errors). You need trunk bjam for this to work. Older bjam will not print that message but otherwise work. The sample wording is as follows: The Boost C++ Libraries were successfully built! The following … [View More]

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[exception][msvc-7.1] regression and use of member template friends
by JOAQUIN M. LOPEZ MUÑOZ 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

Hi, In its current state in trunk, boost/exception/exception.hpp is generating regressions with MSVC 7.1 as shown in: http://tinyurl.com/yckdxrc The problem has to do with some (correct) member template friends declarations that MSVC 7.1 is not able to handle. Lines 222 and ff. of boost/exception/exception.hpp read: #if defined(__MWERKS__) && __MWERKS__<=0x3207 public: #else private: template <class E> friend E const & exception_detail::… [View More]

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Status of Boost.Polygon
by Anders Dalvander 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

According to the announcement (http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.announce/240) Boost.Polygon library was accepted into Boost on 5 November, provided some of the most critical concerns are addressed first. I cannot find it in the 1.42 release of Boost. When can I expect it to exist in a Boost release? Regards, Anders Dalvander

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[getting started] mention boost.build options for abi tages
by Vladimir Prus 21 Feb '10

21 Feb '10

Often, users are asking how they can get "boost_whatever... mt-s ...", or something like that. The attached patch augments with ABI tags table in the getting started guide with corresponding Boost.Build options. Note that I have more suggested changed (in particular to say that naming on Unix is now different), but wanted to split into individual patches for easier review. I've also dropped stlport iostream option, since it's deprecated and in my understanding nobody uses it any longer. OK … [View More]

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sp_convertible<> on MSVC10
by Zachary Turner 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

I'm using 1.42, not trunk, so I don't know if this has already been addressed, but sp_convertible fails with some errors for me. 2>C:\dev\boost\1.42.0\boost/smart_ptr/detail/sp_convertible.hpp(49): error C2070: 'void': illegal sizeof operand 2> C:\dev\boost\1.42.0\boost/smart_ptr/detail/sp_convertible.hpp(68) : see reference to class template instantiation 'boost::detail::sp_convertible<Y,T>' being compiled 2> with 2> [ 2> Y=error_info_tag_t,… [View More] 2> T=boost::exception_detail::error_info_base 2> ] 2> C:\dev\boost\1.42.0\boost/exception/info.hpp(159) : see reference to class template instantiation 'boost::detail::sp_enable_if_convertible<Y,T>' being compiled 2> with 2> [ 2> Y=error_info_tag_t, 2> T=boost::exception_detail::error_info_base 2> ] 2> C:\dev\boost\1.42.0\boost/exception/detail/exception_ptr.hpp(170) : see reference to function template instantiation 'const E &boost::operator <<<boost::unknown_exception,boost::tag_original_exception_type,const type_info*>(const E &,const boost::error_info<Tag,T> &)' being compiled 2> with 2> [ 2> E=boost::unknown_exception, 2> Tag=boost::tag_original_exception_type, 2> T=const type_info * 2> ] 2> C:\dev\boost\1.42.0\boost/exception/detail/exception_ptr.hpp(137) : see reference to function template instantiation 'void boost::unknown_exception::add_original_type<std::exception>(const E &)' being compiled 2> with 2> [ 2> E=std::exception 2> ] 2>C:\dev\boost\1.42.0\boost/exception/info.hpp(159): error C2664: 'boost::exception_detail::error_info_container::set' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'boost::shared_ptr<T>' to 'const boost::shared_ptr<T> &' 2> with 2> [ 2> T=error_info_tag_t 2> ] 2> and 2> [ 2> T=boost::exception_detail::error_info_base 2> ] 2> Reason: cannot convert from 'boost::shared_ptr<T>' to 'const boost::shared_ptr<T>' 2> with 2> [ 2> T=error_info_tag_t 2> ] 2> and 2> [ 2> T=boost::exception_detail::error_info_base 2> ] 2> No user-defined-conversion operator available that can perform this conversion, or the operator cannot be called The line it's pointing to is this: enum _vt { value = sizeof( f( static_cast<Y*>(0) ) ) == sizeof(yes) }; and in particular it's having a problem determining the return type of f( static_cast<Y*>(0) ). It's thinking that whatever overload it's finding for f() here returns type void. Which doesn't make sense neither one returns void. Any ideas? Zach [View Less]

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Re: [boost] [contract] Contract Programming Library
by Andrzej Krzemienski 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

> > The documentation lists the following sequence for executing a constructor: > > > > 1. Initialize member variables via the constructor member > > initialization list (if such a list is specified). > > 2. Check preconditions (but not invariants). > > 3. Execute constructor body. > > 4. Check invariants. > > 5. Check postconditions. > > > > I believe, one of the reasons for validating arguments of a constuctor > > is … [View More]

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[mpi] Documentation patch
by Number Cruncher 19 Feb '10

19 Feb '10

Attached is a patch (against 1.42) to fix a couple of minor errors with the Doxygen documentation for some headers in the boost/mpi library. The errors relate to Doxygen usage, not content. Simon.

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Re: [boost] [contract] Contract Programming Library
by Andrzej Krzemienski 19 Feb '10

19 Feb '10

Hi, two other questions that came to my mind, regarding the library design. (1) Sometimes the assertions execute longer than the function itself. For example: iterator find( iterator begin, iterator end, value v ) precondition { is_sorted( begin, end ); } { return find_sorted( begin, end, v ); } find_sorted has logarithmic complexity, whereas is_sorted has linear one. If I use function find like this: sort( begin, end ); process( find(begin, end, A) ); // call is_sorted process( … [View More]

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Re: [boost] [contract] Contract Programming Library
by Andrzej Krzemienski 19 Feb '10

19 Feb '10

> I am thinking to submit a library for Contract Programming (a.k.a. > Design By Contract (TM) ) for C++. > I have drafted some of the library documentation in Boost-like format: > http://dbcpp.sourceforge.net/boost/libs/contract/doc/html/ > Comments? Hi, I have a couple of questions/suggestions regarding the documentation of the library. (1) Does it execute postconditions when the function body ends with a thrown exception? Obviously it shouldn't. I can see one lie … [View More]saying It is possible to describe the function postconditions. These are logical conditions that programmers expect to be true when the function has ended **normally**. So I guess it doesn't, but I believe this fact deserves some more room in the documentation, like "public member function is not required to satisfy the postcondition if it ends with exception." (2) Obviously, the expressions in assertions shouldn't change the behaviour of the program when executed. This requirement is stronger than having no side effects. You protect the object itself by allowing only const member functions. Are the function arguments (those passed by mutable reference also protected?). Is it allowed/recommended to refer to global or static data in the assertions? If you are using clever macros, perhaps there is a way to block the references to these. In C++0x lambdas you can specify a list of objects you want to refer to: [this, &max_value, &count, &cache]( int fact1, int fact2 ) {...} perhaps there is a way to do it with current C++ macros. (3) In a similar manner, what happens if one of postcondition's assertions throws an exception? I have troubles answering this question myself (I do not know what should ideally happen), but whatever your answer is, I believe it should be clearly documented. (Note that this is not only the issue of DbC; simple C-assertions also leave this question unanswered). (4) Do the assertions have access to objet's private/protected interfaces? (I believe they shouldn't). (5) Does the library allow defining preand postconditions for "free" functions or static member functions? The examples are so focused on objects/classes that I cannot tell the answer. (6) Similarly, does the library allow defining block invariants? (7) The documentation lists the following sequence for executing a constructor: 1. Initialize member variables via the constructor member initialization list (if such a list is specified). 2. Check preconditions (but not invariants). 3. Execute constructor body. 4. Check invariants. 5. Check postconditions. I believe, one of the reasons for validating arguments of a constuctor is to not allow the incorrect values to initialize objest's sub-objects (members). I believe the sequence of the first two items should be inverse. Am I wrong? (8) Since library usses macros that make the syntax a bit difficult to read/parse, perhaps it would be useful to augment every example with another one that would say how the same thing would be acomplished with fictitious "DbC C++" syntax if we had one. This was done for Boost Interface library (under construction, http://www.cdiggins.com/bil.html) and I think it helps a lot. Regards, &rzej [View Less]

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[type_traits] is_class not detecting C++0X lambda on Intel 11.1/Windows?
by Jesse Perla 19 Feb '10

19 Feb '10

The boost version of is_class doesn't seem to be compatible with lambdas in my target compiler. Am I missing something? Any patches/fixes you can think of? Sadly, I can't just use the tr1 version since this is being used internally within a boost library (boost::parameter in my case). BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE( test_is_class ) { auto f = [](double x){return x;}; // static_assert(boost::is_class<decltype(f)>::value, "Failure"); //Compiler failure line 81 of boost/type_traits/is_class.hpp … [View More]

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Formal review request: static size matrix/vector linear algebra library (Boost) LA
by Emil Dotchevski 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Documentation and source code complete with comprehensive tests, released under the Boost Software License is available here: http://www.revergestudios.com/boost-la/ Thanks, Emil Dotchevski

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[preprocessor]
by Баграт Асатрян 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Hello. boost.preprocessor library is good, but it does not support in-place preprocessor metafunction composition and argument bindings. I have just implemented such a functionallity as in boost.mpl, and can say that it simplifies preprocessor metaprogramming greatly. If interested, contact me. С уважением, Баграт Асатрян. ---------------------------------------------- Тел.: +(374 94) 69-78-67, E-mail: bagrat_assatrian(a)mail.ru

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[thread] Ticket #3748 ignored for boost-1.42?
by Oliver Kowalke 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

As I see the patch for the bug (is it?) was not applied for version 1.42. does somebody know why? Oliver

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boost::property_tree is seriously outdated/incomplete
by Philippe Vaucher 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Hello, Basically boost::property_tree documention is incomplete and outdated. There is simply no documentation on what a "Translator" is, only by digging the source you are able to understand it can be used to convert fetched values before returning them. Same goes for "stream_translator", still no idea what it's useful for. What's worse is that the documentation contains WRONG ways of doings things, like it says to change the default '.' separator one should use: pt.get<float>('/', "… [View More]

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Proposal for new variants of the Boost logo.
by Paul A. Bristow 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

After many discussions on the thread "Boost logo variants for use in unofficial or unreleased boost documentation" that many will have tired of, a few with more stamina have agreed the following proposal for wider agreement. Proposal for new variants of the Boost logo. =============================== There are many projects springing up, often with smart documentation using the Boost Logo, and there are many more products, for sale and for free, that use Boost libraries. Many are … [View More]

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"Software Development using the C++ Boost Library", book in preparatiion Options
by Jesse Perla 17 Feb '10

17 Feb '10

Daniel: As a caveat, I am far from an expert. just a library user focused on scientific computing in economics... but here are a few more comments that I hope the experts can correct. > 2. type erasure: I looked this term up but it seems as if it is similar to interface/device independent/ programming. In the past we built homemade Function and used it in combination with OO specialisation with virtual functions, Now boost Function is so much > better. Mathematicians and engineers are … [View More]used to functions and we adopt the same approach (e.g. using namespaces) boost::function certainly beats any home-spun solution. But type erasure is a way to bridge generic programming to give a common *runtime* interface. I think of it as akin to getting the benefits of dynamic polymorphism with arbitrary generic types - effectively creating a virtual function without inheritance. However, just as with dynamic polymorphism it is not without cost: The boost::function infrastructure puts in a dispatch which could drastically hurt performance if called in an inner loop (or have virtually no effect if the function itself is time consuming). The compiler can't inline the functions, etc. Also, the term "type erasure" should be taken literally. The functions which operate on the boost::function are not able to get any information on the type. For example, a common way to deal with a function and derivatives is to have a single function object with an operator() and a gradient() defined. But if you stuff this in a boost::function you lose the information and can only call a specific overload/template of operator(). You can see some old, stupid questions I had asked on this mailing list a while back about this topic: http://lists.boost.org/boost-users/2009/01/44253.php What I learned eventually was that I was trying to use type erasure when I didn't need it, and I was better off sticking with generic programming... So boost::function is very useful, but you run into the same tradeoffs and questions as static vs. dynamic polymorphism: If you don't need dynamic polymorphism, then consider sticking with compile time templates, etc. for better performance and genericity at the potential cost of code complexity. In the case of scientific computing, I find that almost everything is known at compile time and you are better off keeping the types generic/not using type erasure. If you are just using boost::function because the types of the function objects are complicated, consider the alternatives. See my comments in the previous post on the use of "auto" and "decltype" to make this manageable. > 3. Ideally, we would like TR1 and boost to be as seamless as possible. Check out: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_42_0/doc/html/boost_tr1.html Just remember that boost::tr1 is intended to be used only if the vendor hasn't put in a tr1 library. > 4. Fusion: I think this is useful, especially with Any? While I have never used "any", I believe these are two different ways to deal with the problem. Using something like std::vector<boost::any> is another example of type erasure (just as std::vector<boost::function<double (double)> > would be). boost::fusion allows you to have a tuple-like vector of different types, but while retaining type information. The same types of tradeoffs apply as before... and fusion is only usable if you know the types at design-time. If you end up converting some of your code away from boost::function, you may need something like this. On the other hand, it can be pretty advanced so be careful... std::tr1::tuple is enough unless you need to apply an operation on the vector of types. For example, I have often had the case where I had a vector of functions I needed to evaluate. I was unable to use boost::function since I needed genericity so I had a boost::fusion::vector with the various function types. Then to evaluate the functions at the same point, I used a fusion::for_each, transform, or fold depending on what I was trying to do. Note that this should have very high performance: The fusion::for_each ends up doing something akin to loop unrolling at compiletime, and since I didn't lose any type information everything could be inlined. > 7. Numerical integration: I saw this extensive library in Vault. What is the status? These don't seem to be in active development. I have used http://www.coin-or.org/CppAD/ myself. When using AD you will find it extremely difficult to use boost::function because the function stops being generic when the type is removed (play with these libraries and you will understand quickly). This is a perfect example of why you should be wary of removing type information if you don't need to. I think that Robert is correct that you should make sure you study and work with type erasure/generic programming before writing those chapters, especially if you are intended this to be used for numeric computing. Efficiency is critical for these applications and dynamic polymorphism is often unnecessary. And don't be fooled by the name boost::function: Its primary purpose is to bridge dynamic polymorphism for generic callable types, and not to be a placeholder for mathematical functions. While using it can sometimes simplify code (when auto/decltype are not available), the cost should be considered. boost::phoenix, lambda, and bind do not erase type information and I believe all overhead of function adaptation could be optimized away with these. While a lot of the Template Metaprogramming book was beyond my needs, I found careful study essential reading(especially Chapter 9 which covers these topics) .... and that about exhausts my knowledge. Good luck with the book! [View Less]

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"Software Development using the C++ Boost Library", book in preparatiion
by Jesse Perla 17 Feb '10

17 Feb '10

Looks great to me. A few comments: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Daniel J. Duffy" <ddu...(a)datasim.nl> Date: Feb 15, 12:55 am Subject: "Software Development using the C++ Boost Library", book in preparatiion To: Boost Developers Archive > 1. Higher Order Functions I used to use boost::function a lot, but now find myself using templated classes with deduction of the function type instead and haven't used boost::function for a long time . I think when writing … [View More]

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define for 32/64 bitness?
by Oliver Kowalke 17 Feb '10

17 Feb '10

Does boost provide an preprocessor define telling if the boost lib is build for 32 or 64 bit? I need this info for the second parameter of posix_memalign(). regards, Oliver

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"Software Development using the C++ Boost Library", book in preparatiion
by Daniel J. Duffy 17 Feb '10

17 Feb '10

Hello, We would like to announce news on our new book in preparation that is based on the Boost library. Below is a description of what the book is about and its focus. We discuss several applications such as computational finance, simulation, maths, engineering as well as examples for a wider audience. The book is pitched at intermediate level and upwards. We would be very interested in receiving feedback from Boost authors (and those who are workinng with the library) concerning the … [View More]chapters in the book, especially the extensive functionality in the library and possibly examples from areas not discussed above. best regards and thank you! Daniel J. Duffy Robert Demming // Book Proposal "Software Development using the C++ Boost Library" Daniel J. Duffy (dduffy(a)datasim.nl) Robert Demming Datasim Education BV February 2010 Publisher: Datasim Press Ltd. Web site: http://www.datasimfinancial.com/ <http://www.datasimfinancial.com/> What is this book? This book introduces and elaborates the C++ boost library and applies it to creating code and applications for a range of domains such as engineering, computational finance, mathematical physics and other exact disciplines. We have written the book in such a way that the learning process is as seamless as possible; first, for each library we introduces its main features by discussing its syntax and by giving '101' examples to show to use it as quickly as possible. Second, we introduce some of the more advanced features in each library with a view to using and customizing them to suit application needs. Finally, we create small and medium-sized applications and test cases by integrating several libraries to show the usefulness and applicability of boost to support complex software systems. The book is structured into seven major categories, each one of which dealing one particular aspect of software development and its applications. For whom is this Book? We have tried to write the book in such a way that it is accessible to as wide a group of developers as possible (an impossible task!) by the appropriate use of examples at each level of developer expertise and test cases that are of direct relevance in a number of application areas. We assume that the reader has several years of experience of object-oriented and template programming in C++. Application Development using Boost Regarding the test cases and applications we try to model them in such a way that the reader understand the problem and design intent before we discuss the actual coding. To this end, we consider the use of UML class and component diagrams (in the appropriate dosage!) to be essential. In one sense, "UML is C++ in pictures". Some applications that we discuss in the book are: Using Lambda to simplify use of STL algorithms Using Signals to implement, MVC, Observer and PAC patterns (GOF, POSA) Using Bind and Function to semi-discretise partial differential equations (PDE) Random for Monte Carlo simulation, numerical integration and option pricing Any and data-independent parameter passing between modules Interval arithmetic and explicit modelling of numerical imprecision Various text-processing applications Compile-time arrays and matrices using Array Using multi_array to model n-dimensional PDEs uBLAS as data structures for numerical algebra Statistical functions and their applications Accumulators and time series applications Using Flyweight as default in applications Multi-threaded scientific applications Network programming and Asio Mapping GOF patterns to boost (i.e. using boost to implement design blueprints) /// Categories of Libraries 1. Higher Order Functions Function Bind Lambda Signals/Signals2 2. Data Types Any Integer Interval Parameter Rational Smart Pointer Tribool Tuple Variant 3. Text and String Processing Regex String Algo Tokenizer Xpressive 4. Data Structures and Searching Array Date Time Graph Multi-Array Multi-Index 5. Mathematics and Statistics Accumulators Math Common Factor Math/Special Functions Math/Statistical Distributions Random uBLAS 6. Utilities and other Libraries Conversion Dynamic Bitset Filesystem Flyweight Lexical Cast Numeric Conversion Program Options Test 7. Multithreading and Networking Asio Statechart Thread Timer Yours sincerely and thank you Daniel Duffy, PhD Ing. Robert Demming [View Less]

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