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

[optional] can I merge a performance bug fix?
by Andrzej Krzemienski 14 Jul '14

14 Jul '14

Hi, Could I still merge this pull request for Boost.Optional for 1.56 release. https://github.com/boostorg/optional/pull/6 It fixes a negative performance impact added since 1.55 in cases like: consumeOptional(*produceOptional()); This code already used to seat in develop before I added a bug) and all tests passed fine. Now, the fix has been there since friday on develop and I have no test failures. Can I merge it to trunk? Regards, &rzej

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[range] Is it conceivable to have it extended?
by Vladimir Batov 14 Jul '14

14 Jul '14

boost::iterator_range is a great concept/class but it does not seem to play efficiently with certain input sequences and seem to be too strong a requirement for certain algorithms. I have an old-fashioned C string in mind (I am sure there are other examples) and traversing algorithms. When I tried deploying boost::iterator_range for string-to-int conversion purposes, I quickly realized that I was traversing the string twice -- first to find the end and second to do the work. What I think is missing is the "parent" concept of a "sequence". Say, template<iterator_type, sentry_type> struct sequence { iterator_type begin(); sentry_type sentry(); }; Then "range" would implement and refine the "sequence" concept by template<iterator_type> struct range : sequence<iterator_type, iterator_type> { iterator_type begin(); iterator_type end(); sentry_type sentry() { return end; } } I.e., as "range" implements/is the "sequence", the boost::iterator_range will have one additional "useless" sentry() method. That way all the old code (using and/or needing end()) would still work but traversing algorithms might gradually adapt to only require "sequences" instead of "ranges": template<typename Iterator, typename Sentry, typename Function> Function for_each(Iterator beg, Sentry sentry, Function fun) { for (; beg != sentry; ++beg) fun(*beg); return fun; } That means that now all "open-ended" (with no known "end") "ranges" (they are not even "ranges" in the strict meaning of the word but rather "sequences") can be handled efficiently. I ended up having such an "extended" range in Boost.Convert (to handle C string traversals efficiently) but I hate having/maintaining the code and much prefer the standard solution. Any suggestions? Vladimir.

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Libraries failing across the board.
by Beman Dawes 13 Jul '14

13 Jul '14

Marshall is just a few days away from being able to put out a beta release candidate. (And that is very good news!) But we still have too many libraries failing across the board on master: accumulators interprocess numeric/ublas pool proto spirit/repository spirit/test tr1 wave See http://www.boost.org/development/tests/master/developer/summary.html What is the hold up with these? Does anyone need help? --Beman

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1.56.0 beta 1 release candidates available for testing
by Marshall Clow 13 Jul '14

13 Jul '14

Release candidate files for 1.56.0 beta 1 are available at http://boost.cowic.de/rc/ As always, the release managers would appreciate it if you download the candidate of your choice and give building it a try. Please report both success and failure, and anything else that is noteworthy. This helps ensure the candidates build OK before we push them out to SourceForge. The files (and associated md5s) are: MD5 (boost-1_56_0b1_rc1.7z) = a23e0b5f503c82970c9754dbc8324256 MD5 (boost-1_56_0b1_rc1.tar.bz2) = c6c8486dde4375896f302bdfe1fd3d2f MD5 (boost-1_56_0b1_rc1.tar.gz) = 1042e97a9f354b7187326fa1f9eb313e MD5 (boost-1_56_0b1_rc1.zip) = 984a70feac785d908d8f75ea9d8d2158 Since this is the first post-git release, we are expecting some teething pains with this release. Please test extensively. Thank you. --The release managers

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Can't run tests on develop
by Peter Dimov 12 Jul '14

12 Jul '14

When I try to run the smart_ptr tests on develop by the usual: C:\Projects\boost-git\boost\libs\smart_ptr\test>b2 toolset=gcc,gcc-cxx11,msvc-8.0,msvc-10.0,msvc-12.0 I now get the following errors: ...found 1 target... ...updating 1 target... msvc.write-setup-script C:\Users\PETERD~1\AppData\Local\Temp\b2_msvc_12.0_vcvarsall_x86.cmd ...updated 1 target... ...found 1 target... ...updating 1 target... msvc.write-setup-script C:\Users\PETERD~1\AppData\Local\Temp\b2_msvc_12.0_vcvarsall_x86_amd64.cmd ...updated 1 target... ...found 1 target... ...updating 1 target... msvc.write-setup-script C:\Users\PETERD~1\AppData\Local\Temp\b2_msvc_8.0_vcvarsall_x86.cmd ...updated 1 target... ...found 1 target... ...updating 1 target... msvc.write-setup-script C:\Users\PETERD~1\AppData\Local\Temp\b2_msvc_8.0_vcvarsall_x86_amd64.cmd ...updated 1 target... C:/Projects/boost-git/boost/tools/build/src/tools\msvc.jam:1057: in configure-really *** argument error * rule locate-default-setup ( command : parent : setup-name ) * called with: ( : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\vc\WPSDK : vcvarsphoneall.bat ) * missing argument command C:/Projects/boost-git/boost/tools/build/src/tools\msvc.jam:1446:see definition of rule 'locate-default-setup' being called C:/Projects/boost-git/boost/tools/build/src/tools\msvc.jam:200: in configure C:/Projects/boost-git/boost/tools/build/src/tools\msvc.jam:152: in msvc.init C:/Projects/boost-git/boost/tools/build/src/build\toolset.jam:43: in toolset.using C:/Projects/boost-git/boost/tools/build/src\build-system.jam:461: in process-explicit-toolset-requests C:/Projects/boost-git/boost/tools/build/src\build-system.jam:527: in load C:\Projects\boost-git\boost\tools\build\src/kernel\modules.jam:289: in import C:\Projects\boost-git\boost\tools\build\src/kernel/bootstrap.jam:139: in boost-build C:\Projects\boost-git\boost\boost-build.jam:17: in module scope Any ideas?

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Release 1.56 - permission to merge chrono issue
by Vicente J. Botet Escriba 12 Jul '14

12 Jul '14

Hi, could I merge this to master https://github.com/boostorg/chrono/commit/7af7f3afaff9170d2f79410b48ac702e5… Vicente

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Where is this symbol defined?
by Axel Ismirlian 12 Jul '14

12 Jul '14

I was wondering where the symbol .test_main(int, char**) is defined if it comes up undefined. gcc.compile.c+ + ../bin.v2/libs/asio/test/basic_datagram_socket_select.test/gcc-4.8.1/debug/threading-multi/basic_datagram_socket.o gcc.link ../bin.v2/libs/asio/test/basic_datagram_socket_select.test/gcc-4.8.1/debug/threading-multi/basic_datagram_socket_select ld: 0711-224 WARNING: Duplicate symbol: .init_unit_test_suite(int, char**) ld: 0711-345 Use the -bloadmap or -bnoquiet option to obtain more information. ld: 0711-317 ERROR: Undefined symbol: .test_main(int, char**) collect2: error: ld returned 8 exit status I have done an object dump and I know it is undefined in libboost_test_exec_monitor.a, but that's as far as I got.

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Proposal: Vector-like container, which takes O(log(N)) for insert/erase, feedback
by Alexander Kuprijanov 12 Jul '14

12 Jul '14

Hi, everybody! The most important feature of my container is performance. However, other features will appear later. https://github.com/alexkupri/array/blob/master/description/description.txt Today I compared my container with rope. My container outperformed it 10 times. > Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2014 16:39:29 -0700 > From: Glen Fernandes <glen.fernandes(a)gmail.com> > I wasn't sure at first why my name was in parenthesis in the e-mail > subject. :-) > Glen It's my fault, sorry about it. > Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 13:41:04 +0200 > From: Adam Wulkiewicz <adam.wulkiewicz(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [boost] Proposal: Vector-like container, which takes > O(log(N)) for insert/erase > AFAIU just like a B-tree can be seen as a generalization of a binary > search tree in that a node can have more than two children, your > container can be seen as a similar generalization of a Rope. Or it can > be seen as an augumented B-tree (not really because the values are no > longer stored in internal nodes and the tree isn't sorted, correct me > if I'm wrong). Your You understood right. > proposal is very similar to Counted B-tree > (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/algorithms/cbtree.html) > which is a B-tree with random access. The difference is that your > container can't be used to search for a stored value in O(logN) > without sorting and binary search. This may be ok if someone require > only random access, the size of a node is smaller which probably > improves the cacheing. Again, right. There are a lot of situations when only random access is necessary. You probably will not sort characters in string. > > In general, B-tree was introduced to improve the performance of the > access to data stored in persistent memory (lower performance). In > this case it was better to load the whole page into memory (and cache > it) than load many small, scatered parts. But in the case of > RAM-only-access, a binary search tree should be faster. As far as we > don't consider spatial indexing, interval trees, etc. where > values/nodes may "overlap" somehow and we must search in more than one > subtree. Therefore I'm wondering if a classic Rope would be faster > than your container in the use-case you're testing - simple insert and > random It outperformed Rope 10 times. It's expected result. Please visit my link, I added verbose explanation under "ROPE TEST" section. Shortly speaking, four reasons exist: cache, pages, balancing and malloc/free. > access to a in-memory container. Have you test it? I'd perform 2 tests: > 1. Very big number of values + truly random insert/access to prevent > cacheing > 2. insert/access in the same area I've tested with truly random tests. Please see results and code of SingleOperationPerformanceCheck and MultipleOperationsTest functions. Tell me, if I'm wrong. > > IMHO the benefits related to the use of this container should be more > noticable if the persistent storage were used. In memory/cache there are the same relationship as in HD/memory. > > As for the name, it's definietly not an array. I'd call it B-rope. Thanks, your option is accepted. I'll collect more options and we'll vote. I like brope. > > Regards, > Adam > Message: 9 From: Lars Viklund <zao(a)acc.umu.se> > Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2014 14:10:06 +0200 > If it doesn't have contiguous storage, it's not a replacement for > vector, however much you want it to be the universal container that > everyone uses for everything. > It may be a better general-purpose container compared to the > usual default containers, deque and vector, but it isn't a replacement > for either of them. Well, I would see it as first choise container for non-sorted data. It's comparable with vector/deque on small arrays and outperforms them on large sizes. It's more preferrable than list at least in terms of malloc/free calls. And it's probably better for strings. So one should use it by default in all cases with unsorted data and use list, vector, deque and string only if he/she really understands what he/she does. > You use the term 'intrusive' in the documentation, but it doesn't seem > to carry the usual meaning that it requires the types involved to > participate in the container structure. You are right. I've corrected the documentation. Now I call "fat leaves" leaves which contain elements, and "thin leaves" leaves which contain pointers to elements. > Your tests doesn't seem to exercise much else than container<int> > either. Suggest your tests. > I'm not quite sure I like the explicit L/M non-type template parameters > either, considering that it leaks implementation detail into every > single user of the type. Well, you are right in principle. It must have default parameters. But it's platform dependent, they should be chosen so that branch and leaf would take roughly 1 cache line, minus information required for malloc overhead. > As for the Copy-on-Write semantics, isn't the general consensus that CoW > is a horrible horrible thing and is very hard to get right+fast in the > modern world with concurrency? I disagree with your estimation. There are different situations, different machines. Embedded and mobile machines want to save memory. Large machines can also want to save memory, if they amount of data is large. Finally, they can even speed-up by avoiding copying the whole array. Imagine you are writing text editor. (DNA editor, sound editor, etc.) You make backup copy and continue editing, again backup copy and continue editing. And you keep only forward commands (without undo). You can easily rollback to any state you need. Ofcourse, user should decide, whether CoW option is necessary for him/her, because it wastes resources when enabled and not used. > > Message: 11 > Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2014 23:23:09 +1000 > From: Vadim Stadnik <vadimstdk(a)gmail.com> > Could you please provide a figure that shows data association with > nodes in > your data structure? I updated the doc, follow the link above.

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Number of tests in boost
by Axel Ismirlian 11 Jul '14

11 Jul '14

Hello, I was wondering whether there is a precise way to count the total number of tests across all libraries? What is the total number of tests in boost? Sincerely, -Axel

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Test build for 1.56 available
by Marshall Clow 11 Jul '14

11 Jul '14

I have made a test build for 1.56 and would appreciate help in finding problems with it. boost.1.56.0.tar.gz: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11048326/boost/boost-1.56.0a1c1.tar.gz boost.1.56.0.zip: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11048326/boost/boost-1.56.0a1c1.zip The tar.gz file builds w/o errors on my Mac. The zip version contains windows line endings. I’m looking for: * missing files/libraries * files/folders that don’t belong in the release * files/folders in the wrong places * build failures * Anything else that is wrong. One thing I’ve noticed is that these are *significantly* larger than the 1.55.0 archives. A bunch of that is because the Boost.Ublas documentation has exploded in size - but there are probably other reasons as well. Looking forward to feedback… — Marshall

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