April 2014 - Boost - lists.preview.boost.org

[GSoC, MPL11] Community probe
by Louis Dionne 04 May '14

04 May '14

Dear Boost, As a follow-up to [1], I am probing the community to help clarify what are your needs/expectations with respect to a new TMP library. Your involvement is important as it will help direct my work on an eventual successor to the MPL (in consultation with my mentor, Joel Falcou). I expect this to be the first of a series of probes to the community. This one focuses on backward compatibility with the MPL. COMMUNITY PROBE --------------- Please comment on how you would like to see the following points addressed by a new TMP library: (1) Backward compatibility with the MPL. Should it be a swap-in replacement? Is it enough to have an easy way to interoperate between both libraries (think Fusion/MPL interoperation)?. (2) Learning curve for users coming from the MPL. How important is it for you to be able to reuse your knowledge of the MPL (not of TMP, but of the MPL itself)?. Please get involved by posting constructive material. Regards, Louis Dionne PS: As I expect this to be the first of a couple of community-wide probes, is there a preferred way to do these (on the ML or elsewhere)? PPS: If the thread gets very active, I might be slow to answer. I'm spread between this and my finals. [1]: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/250424

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[typeindex v3.0] Peer review begins Mon 21st ends Wed 30th
by Niall Douglas 02 May '14

02 May '14

Dear Boost, A second round of community review begins for proposed Boost.TypeIndex on Mon 21st, lasting ten days. I should apologise as it's my fault for starting another peer review straight after Boost.Align ends, however I was busy as Google Summer of Code admin until today, and I will be preparing to talk at C++ Now straight after this review ends. I hope that this doesn't affect the community's willingness to contribute to the review. Reminder of the report from the last TypeIndex v2.1 review: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/boost-list/TeiSdkRkUF0 Reminder of the original peer review announcement: http://boost.2283326.n4.nabble.com/TypeIndex-Peer-review-period-for-li brary-acceptance-begins-ending-Thurs-21st-Nov-td4654788.html Source code: https://github.com/apolukhin/type_index/zipball/master Github: https://github.com/apolukhin/type_index Documentation: http://apolukhin.github.com/type_index/index.html Changes in TypeIndex v3.0 since v2.1 (from my own review of it): 1. Documentation is hugely improved over v2.1, lots of side by side examples illustrating the differences and similarities. 2. You can now create your own custom type indices using an extensible framework. 3. boost::typeind::type_info now exports raw_name() and pretty_name() to maximise MSVC-GCC compatibility, and to solve point 1 but not point 2 in the v2.1 report. 4. The undefined behaviour trick used in v2.1 has been replaced with a cast via the placeholder type boost::typeind::detail::ctti_data which can be viewed in https://github.com/apolukhin/type_index/blob/master/include/boost/type _index/ctti_type_index.hpp. There is an explanation in the comments there about this technique's compatibility with the C++ standard. 5. TypeIndex now defines everything in the boost::typeind namespace instead of the boost namespace. So: 1. What is your evaluation of the design? 2. What is your evaluation of the implementation? 3. What is your evaluation of the documentation? 4. What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? 5. Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems? 6. How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? 7. Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? And finally, every review should answer this question: 8. Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library? Be sure to say this explicitly so that your other comments don't obscure your overall opinion. Thanks, Niall -- Currently unemployed and looking for work in Ireland. Work Portfolio: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/nialldouglas/

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Spam in tickets
by Antony Polukhin 02 May '14

02 May '14

Hi, Could some one see what can be done with this spam https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/9963<https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/7108> ? -- Best regards, Antony Polukhin

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[graph] dijkstra algorithm object
by alex 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

Dear Jeremiah and Boost list, I'd like to suggest for inclusion in Boost Graph Library an algorithm object version of dijkstra shortest path algorithm. The following is an example how it can be used, assuming some graph, source node(s) and threshold distance: auto dijkstra make_dijkstra_object(graph, source_range); while(dijkstra()) { auto v = dijkstra.get_vertex(); auto distance_map = dijkstra.get<vertex_distance_t>(); if(get(distance_map, v) > threshold) break; } It is very close to what Jeremiah suggested 2 years ago: http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2012/07/195300.php The main advantage for me is the possibility to interweave several shortest path searches. The algorithm object makes use of the stackless coroutine in Boost ASIO, which means it is relatively lightweight. However, on a large graph the algorithm object still takes about 20% more time than the normal dijkstra_shortest_path. The operator() progresses the algorithm to the next control point. Control points can correspond to all places where breadth_first_search invokes its visitor, but it is specified in compile time at which potential control points the algorithm actually yields. The default is to halt at the finish_vertex control point only. The make_dijkstra_object function can take all parameters through bgl_named_parameters, including the priority queue and the color map, which the existing dijkstra_shortest_path does not support. The code is part of the following project: http://code.google.com/p/resumable-dijkstra The algorithm object is defined here: http://code.google.com/p/resumable-dijkstra/source/browse/trunk/resumable-di jkstra/blink/graph/dijkstra_object.hpp I look forward to hear if there are any takers this time. Best wishes, Alex

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[MPI] Fix can be merge to master
by Ben Pope 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

Please merge https://github.com/boostorg/mpi/commit/a7a2501242e78c65df9ff82c67dcad1f016b… to master. Should fix mpi and graph_parallel Ben

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Request for comments on break up ‘Application’ into 2 libraries.
by Renato Forti 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

Hi All, Following suggestion of Niall Douglas, I am thinking in split the ‘Boost.Application’ in 2 libraries: - - Boost.Application - Boost.Shared_Library Thus, the ‘plug-in systems’ will be detached of ‘Boost.Application’ core and will become one new library, and ‘Application’ stay only providing abstraction of an application (no more plugin system) I will detach this part: http://www.dokfile.com/appbeta4/docs/libs/application/doc/html/boost_applic… Anyone have any comment/advises about it? Any suggestion? Anyone disagrees? I await your comments, thanks! -- ReTF

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Why no non-null smart pointers?
by Ross MacGregor 29 Apr '14

29 Apr '14

I just created a very small smart pointer libary for our project. It will contain two types of shared pointers: SharedHandle and NullableSharedHandle. SharedHandle will be a shared pointer that cannot be null by ensuring a non-null construction while NullableSharedHandle will basically be a typedef for boost::shared_ptr. I firmly believe that code can be made more reliable by minimizing the use of nullable pointers. To this end, I think it is important that we start using non-null pointer types. Ideally the compiler would be able to understand a non-null pointer and catch bugs at compile time, but I think we can still improve things with a few runtime checks. If we make sure that a shared pointer is constructed with a non-null pointer and ban any reset() type methods, we guarentee that it points to something. This can be beneficial for the following reasons: 1. Any function that uses this type will no longer be burdened with precondition checks to make sure variables of this type are not null. 2. It's type is simply more explicit and better explains its function. 3. Moving the non-null check to the creation phase will reduce the possibility of encountering null pointer exceptions at runtime (assuming there are many more pointer references than constructor calls). So my little pointer library seems to make a lot of sense, but if so why hasn't this simple smart pointer variation made it into boost yet? Has this been discussed somewhere already? My search on non-null smart pointers is not revealing much discussion on the topic. Regards, Ross

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Linker error, Windows 7, one specific function from one specific library
by Chris Cooper 28 Apr '14

28 Apr '14

I’m trying to get the boost 1.55 regression tests to build on my Windows machine (msvc-10.0), and nearly all of them build fine but a few of them: pool.pool_msvc_compiler_bug_test pool.test_bug_1252 pool.test_bug_2696 pool.test_bug_3349 pool.test_bug_4960 pool.test_bug_5526 pool.test_msvc_mem_leak_detect pool.test_pool_alloc pool.test_simple_seg_storage pool.time_pool_alloc Give this error : pool_msvc_compiler_bug_test.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "class boost::system::error_category const & __cdecl boost::system::generic_category(void)" (?generic_category@system@boost@@YAAEBVerror_category@12@XZ) referenced in function "void __cdecl boost::system::`dynamic initializer for 'posix_category''(void)" (??__Eposix_category@system@boost@@YAXXZ) pool_msvc_compiler_bug_test.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "class boost::system::error_category const & __cdecl boost::system::system_category(void)" (?system_category@system@boost@@YAAEBVerror_category@12@XZ) referenced in function "void __cdecl boost::system::`dynamic initializer for 'native_ecat''(void)" (??__Enative_ecat@system@boost@@YAXXZ) If my libraries were completely wrong, I would expect everything to fail, and many more unresolved symbols, but it’s just this one symbol that is confusing the linker. The command line I’m using to build these tests is: b2 toolset=msvc-10.0 --without-mpi --build-dir=C:\temp address-model=64 variant=release link=static threading=multi --dump-tests test_bug_1252 Which compares favorably with the command lines I’m using to build the libraries: b2 -j4 --without-mpi --stagedir=C:\temp\boost\build\stage --build-dir=C:\temp\boost\build toolset=msvc-10.0 address-model=64 variant=release link=static threading=multi b2 -j4 --without-mpi --prefix=C:\temp\boost\install --stagedir=C:\temp\boost\build\stage --libdir=C:\temp\boost\install\lib --build-dir=C:\temp\boost\build --build-type=complete toolset=msvc-10.0 address-model=64 variant=release link=static threading=multi install b2 -j4 --with-math --stagedir=C:\temp\boost\build\stage --build-dir=C:\temp\boost\build --build-type=complete toolset=msvc-10.0 address-model=64 variant=release link=static threading=multi b2 -j4 --with-math --prefix=C:\temp\boost\install --stagedir=C:\temp\boost\build\stage --libdir=C:\temp\boost\install\lib --build-dir=C:\temp\boost\build --build-type=complete toolset=msvc-10.0 address-model=64 variant=release link=static threading=multi install I inherited the build scripts, so I’m not sure why b2 is being called 4 times, is that a problem? Should I merge the “--without-mpi” into calls 3 and 4, and get rid of calls 1 and 2? Why is it having trouble with just this one symbol? Thanks, Chris

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Announcing the student program for Meeting C++ 2014
by Jens Weller 28 Apr '14

28 Apr '14

Hello C++ and Boost Community, today I have the honor to announce the student program for Meeting C++ 2014: > The Meeting C++ Student program will enable 50 students to attend Meeting C++ 2014 plus 3 exclusive workshops organized by think-cell one day before the conference on December 4th. So, for students this will be a 3 day conference! After the workshops you will be invited to the student dinner by think-cell. Further details at http://meetingcpp.com/index.php/newsreader/items/meeting-cpp-2014-the-stude… kind regards, Jens Weller

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[graph] Undocumented function bron_kerbosch_all_cliques
by Javier Dehesa 28 Apr '14

28 Apr '14

Looking for clique search algorithms in BGL, I've found out that there exists the function bron_kerbosch_all_cliques, but that there is not documentation for it. The implementation fo the algorithm can be found here http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/boost/graph/bron_kerbosch_all_cliques.… and there is even an example program using it http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/libs/graph/example/bron_kerbosch_print… Also, it seems to define a "clique visitor" concept that is not documented either. Is there any reason for it? Maybe there is some problem with the implementation? Or is it just missing documentation? I've run some toy examples and it seems to work, but I can't tell if there would be a problem with large graphs. -- Javier Dehesa

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Re: [boost] [Boost-users] [typeindex v3.0] Peer review begins Mon 21st ends Wed 30th
by Niall Douglas 27 Apr '14

27 Apr '14

On 23 Apr 2014 at 14:33, Paul A. Bristow wrote: > > 2. What is your evaluation of the implementation? > OK. > > Though I'm not enthusiastic about the name of namespace boost::typeind:: but I > don't have any much better ideas. Perhaps someone else has? To clarify the issue to everyone else, TypeIndex is in a rather unusual bind with regard to what namespace to use. Ideally I think we'd all agree that boost::type_index would be best, but then one of the issues raised last peer review was that there shouldn't be a boost::type_index type as could conflict with std::type_index, and if we hold that to be wise, then surely the same rationale applies for a boost::type_index namespace as well. So we end up with boost::typeind, which I don't think makes anyone happy, but it is safe. > IMO, the frequency of use of the namespace bti is probably so low that spelling > it out is clearer, for example: > > boost::typeind::type_id<T>().pretty_name() // human readable Noted. > > 8. Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library? > > Yes. Thanks Paul for the vote and quick turnaround. I was worried that the review announcement had got lost. Niall -- Currently unemployed and looking for work in Ireland. Work Portfolio: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/nialldouglas/

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[testing] gcc 4.9 test failures
by Andrey Semashev 27 Apr '14

27 Apr '14

Hi, I'm seeing lots of test failures on BP x86_64 C++11 gcc-4.9.0~c11. http://www.boost.org/development/tests/develop/developer/log.html The test logs don't show any errors. Is it possible to see the complete build log?

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any macro for silencing unused variable warnings?
by Andrzej Krzemienski 26 Apr '14

26 Apr '14

Hi, Is there in Boost a macro for disabling warnings about unused variables? (In case I intend my variable never to be used). Regards, &rzej

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noexcept BOOST_EXPLICIT_OPERATOR_BOOL
by Andrzej Krzemienski 26 Apr '14

26 Apr '14

Hi, Although I am not entirely convinced that any not throwing function (except for moves) should be marked as noexcept, I can see that noexcept starts to get into Boost. explicit operator bool appears to be a good candidate, but macro BOOST_EXPLICIT_OPERATOR_BOOL does not offer it. So I have to choose: use the macro or noexcept. Perhaps the macro could be expanded to give an option to add noexcept, but that would spawn two macros (BOOST_EXPLICIT_OPERATOR_BOOL and BOOST_CONSTEXPR_EXPLICIT_OPERATOR_BOOL) into four. Are four macros for almost the same purpose acceptable? Or do I have to abandon the idea of making the operator noeaxcept. Are there any recommendations? Regards, &rzej

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[config] Documentation oversight?
by Mostafa 26 Apr '14

26 Apr '14

Here: http://tinyurl.com/lm2u35f it says that BOOST_NO_NOEXCEPT is deprecated in favor of BOOST_NO_CXX11_NOEXCEPT, yet here: http://tinyurl.com/lggeqcp the reference is defined in terms of the deprecated macros. For consistency and to prevent accidental misuse shouldn't the documentation be referencing the new macros throughout?

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[ublas] FYI: msvc12 compilation errors and some questions
by Adam Wulkiewicz 25 Apr '14

25 Apr '14

Hi, FYI, ublas is broken for MSVC 12 due to the use of constexpr which is not suported by this compiler. I might fix it however I assume there are people who would like to do it. Btw, would you be so kind and answer for some questions? I'm curious about the design. Why BOOST_UBLAS_CPP_GE_2011 library-wide #define is usedto enable fixed_vector<>? This makes it available only on some compilers which allows the users to write non-portable code. Shouldn't Boost libraries use language featureswhen they're available or emulate them rather than enable/disable some functionalities? Especially when it could be easily done, like in this case. Variadic templates may be emulated with Boost.Preprocessor, e.g. see how emplace_back() is implemented in boost::container::vector<> : https://github.com/boostorg/container/blob/develop/include/boost/container/… lines 1309-1380. constexpr may be conditionally used e.g. like this: #ifndefBOOST_NO_CXX11_CONSTEXPR #define CONSTEXPR_OR_STATIC constexpr #else #define CONSTEXPR_OR_STATIC static #endif So I'm wondering was the decision about the design made to push the library towards "pure" C++11? If yes, does this mean that all new features will require C++11? Regards, Adam

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the Boost policy for protecting against "too perfect forwarding"
by Andrzej Krzemienski 25 Apr '14

25 Apr '14

Hi, By "too perfect forwarding" I mean the issue described in either of the following articles: http://akrzemi1.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/too-perfect-forwarding/ http://flamingdangerzone.com/cxx11/2012/06/05/is_related.html http://ericniebler.com/2013/08/07/universal-references-and-the-copy-constru… In short, a perfect-forwarding constructor can inadvertently become a better match than a copy constructor when we want to make a copy. There are two ways for protecting against it: 1. enable_if -- to disable the unwanted overloads 2. Add additional constructor overloads. (1) appears cleaner, but some compilers might not support SFINAE. My question is if there is a consensus in Boost how to approach this problem. Is Boost supposed to support compilers w/o SFINAE? (It looks so, because we have macro BOOST_NO_SFINAE. I can see Boost.Any just uses SFINAE for this purpose without any check. Are there any compilers supported by Boost that have rvalue references but no SFINAE? Regards, &rzej

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[Graph] Pull request for multiplicities support in brandes_betweenness_centrality
by Javier Dehesa 25 Apr '14

25 Apr '14

I've put a pull request for ticket #9935 https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/9935 https://github.com/boostorg/graph/pull/6 Explanations included in the ticket and the pull request. I can try to make the implementation for graph_parallel if this get accepted. -- Javier Dehesa

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lazy_enable_if is not sfinae friendly?
by Hui Li 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

I was surprised to find that the following code doesn't compile with boost 1.55, where boost::result_of is itself sfinae friendly. template < typename T > typename boost::lazy_enable_if_c< boost::is_class<T>::value, boost::result_of<T(int)> >::type test(int){} template < typename > void test(...) {} struct A{}; // boost::result_of<A(int)> is a valid type that doesn't have a member called "type" int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) { test<A>(0); // test<A>(int) meant to be a substitution failure return 0; } For example, on clang++-3.4 with -std=c++11, I got: clang++-mp-3.4 -std=c++11 -I /opt/local/include/ main.cpp In file included from main.cpp:1: In file included from /opt/local/include/boost/type_traits.hpp:65: In file included from /opt/local/include/boost/type_traits/is_nothrow_move_assignable.hpp:22: /opt/local/include/boost/utility/enable_if.hpp:40:25: error: no type named 'type' in 'boost::result_of<A (int)>' typedef typename T::type type; ~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~ main.cpp:12:1: note: in instantiation of template class 'boost::lazy_enable_if_c<true, boost::result_of<A (int)> >' requested here typename boost::lazy_enable_if_c< ^ main.cpp:16:1: note: while substituting explicitly-specified template arguments into function template 'test' test(int){} ^ 1 error generated. But if lazy_enable_if_c had been implemented as template <bool B, class T> struct lazy_enable_if_c : T {}; // inherits from T template <class T> struct lazy_enable_if_c<false, T> {}; The above test code would compile fine. However, the current implementation template <bool B, class T> struct lazy_enable_if_c { typedef typename T::type type; // this is what caused the compile error }; template <class T> struct lazy_enable_if_c<false, T> {}; seems to evaluate T::type too soon, and results in a compile error rather than a substitution failure. I wonder if the current implementation is chosen deliberately to disallow use cases like the test code? But I imagine allowing lazy_enable_if etc to be (more) sfinae friendly could be very useful. I was able to find a workaround for the test code: template < typename T > typename boost::enable_if_c< boost::is_class<T>::value, boost::result_of<T(int)> >::type::type // when T = A, this is a substitution failure test(int){} Hui

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[assign] Merge request for type disambiguation with C++11
by Ben Pope 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

https://github.com/boostorg/assign/pull/3 The merge base was somehow ignored, not sure what happened there, but the set of changes is in the last commit. Ben

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[Bug Report] macro definition has \ followed by spaces
by Walter Bright 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

In order for line splicing to work, \ has to be followed by a newline. boost/1.51.0/gcc-4.8.1-glibc-2.17-fb/42097cf/include/boost/spirit/home/classic/utility/rule_parser.hpp line 422 ::BOOST_SPIRIT_CLASSIC_NS::type_of::depend_on_type<__Dummy>(x) ) \

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boost::aligned_storage broken on VC12 for alignment values of 8
by Glen Fernandes 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

Very surprising, but easily reproducible with VC12 (2013), Release or Debug configuration, Win32 platform: the following program will often* throw: #include <boost/type_traits/aligned_storage.hpp> #include <cstdint> int main() { boost::aligned_storage<8, 8>::type a; if (((std::uintptr_t)&a % 8) != 0) { throw 1; } } * Four of every five times it failed because the storage was only 4-byte aligned, not 8-byte aligned. Does not reproduce for x64 builds, just x86 builds. Does not reproduce with alignment values other than 8. Glen

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Regression test relying on undefined compiler behavior (c++11)
by Chris Cooper 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

libs/utility/numeric_traits_test.cpp generates values complement_traits<Number>::min using a clever recursive template, but that template relies on left-shifting a negative value, and according to the C++11 standard that’s a no-no (“the behavior is undefined”) which means it’s not a constant expression, which means it can’t be calculated at compile time, which means the BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT in line 332 won’t compile, saying “static_assert expression is not an integral constant expression” (I’m using clang++). See discussion here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23250651/strange-behavior-with-c-recursi… In addition, it looks like the existing code also relies on the compiler filling the vacated bits with one’s, which I don’t think is what actually happens. The solution I’ve come up with, is to do the shifting using unsigned values, thus avoiding the compiler no-no, and then putting the result back in the specified type. In other words, replacing line 73 BOOST_STATIC_CONSTANT(Number, min = Number(Number(prev::min) << CHAR_BIT)); With BOOST_STATIC_CONSTANT(Number, min = boost::detail::is_signed<Number>::value ? (Number)(((unsigned long)(prev::min) << 8) | 0x00FF) : Number(Number(prev::min) << CHAR_BIT) ); I’m using constants ‘8’ and ‘0x00FF’ rather than CHAR_BIT since the code would get really ugly if CHAR_BIT != 8. Thoughts? Thanks, Chris

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Fwd: [Boost-users] [typeindex v3.0] Peer review begins Mon 21st ends Wed 30th
by Antony Polukhin 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

2014-04-23 17:33 GMT+04:00 Paul A. Bristow <pbristow(a)hetp.u-net.com>: <...> > > 2. What is your evaluation of the implementation? > OK. > > Though I'm not enthusiastic about the name of namespace boost::typeind:: > but I > don't have any much better ideas. Perhaps someone else has? > > Nor am I clear that this namespace bti helps the reader. > > "Through all the examples, we'll assume that the following namespace alias > is in > effect: > > namespace bti = boost::typeind; > > " > > IMO, the frequency of use of the namespace bti is probably so low that > spelling > it out is clearer, for example: > > boost::typeind::type_id<T>().pretty_name() // human readable > Agreed: boost::typeindex would be more user friendly. It suggests to the reader which library to look for. Other notes will be also addressed. Thanks for the review! -- Best regards, Antony Polukhin

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Re: [boost] Application need a Review Manager. Anyone is interested?
by Brian Wood 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

Niall Douglas: > Yeah, I'd definitely redouble my advice to break up Application into > smaller, standalone, reusable bits. The problem with any overarching > framework is that it's a vision (i.e. your vision), and other > people's visions never peer review well, whether in academia, here in > Boost, or anywhere. Also, unless you're a member of Boost's steering > committee and/or on the C++ standards committee, any vision you > propose probably won't be given any benefit of the doubt > unfortunately. Some might think: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. My motto though is: If you can't join 'em, beat 'em. -- Brian Ebenezer Enterprises - "A fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan." T. Boone Pickens http://webEbenezer.net

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