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Unicode characters in filenames
by Tom Kent 24 Aug '15

24 Aug '15

Recently there was a thread that ended up changing the boost guidelines so that Unicode characters are now allowed in C++ source files. http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2015/06/223822.php However, in the 1.59 release, there was a filename that had unicode characters in it: libs\preprocessor\doc\Appendix A An Introduction to Preprocessor Metaprogramming.html. Which, HTML encoded, actually looks like: Appendix%20A%20%C2%A0%20An%20Introduction. Note the %C2%A0 character (Hex C2A0, Octal: 302240, Windows displays: ┬á)? Since this seems like a mistake, I've created a pull request for this in pre-processor. However, it begs the question: Should we support unicode codepoints for filenames in the boost distribution? I would like for this answer to be 'no' as there are still lots of tools out there that don't correctly handle unicode filenames. However, it is worth bringing up the discussion. Is there a reason we would want unicode file names? I would guess that tests uses them (especially the filesystem tests), however I would also expect that these tests generate the files on the fly, and that they aren't part of what is distributed. Thoughts? Tom Kent

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"Simple C++11 metaprogramming"
by Peter Dimov 22 Aug '15

22 Aug '15

I've recently made the mistake to reread Eric Niebler's excellent "Tiny Metaprogramming Library" article http://ericniebler.com/2014/11/13/tiny-metaprogramming-library/ which of course prompted me to try to experiment with my own tiny metaprogramming library and to see how I'd go about implementing tuple_cat (a challenge Eric gives.) Ordinarily, any such experiments of mine leave no trace once I abandon them and move on, but this time I decided to at least write an article about the result, so here it is, with the hope someone might find it useful. :-) http://pdimov.com/cpp2/simple_cxx11_metaprogramming.html

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cache size runtime detection
by Joel FALCOU 22 Aug '15

22 Aug '15

We have a bunch of cross-platform CPU cache size and cache line size detection that we want to offload into boost in preparation for the first reviewable version of Boost.SIMD. It's rather smallish in term of API but the code is non-trivial. I think it's a bit broad to be in utility/core, doesn't really fit in align and IIRC there is no "general memory related" library in Boost. Questions: 1/ would there be interest to have such utility in Boost ? 2/ here should we put it ? Is Boost.Memory a viable solution or could it be hosted somewhere non-trivial ? Regards

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[Polygon] trait register on derived class
by Lechuan Xue 21 Aug '15

21 Aug '15

Hi, Currently, if I have one custom geometry and a few further derived custom geometries, I need to do trait register on all of them. Like: class derived_point1 : public base_point {}; class derived_point2 : public base_point1 {}; namespace boost { namespace polygon { struct geometry_concept<base_point> { typedef point_concept type; }; struct geometry_concept<derived_point1> { typedef point_concept type; }; struct geometry_concept<derived_point2> { typedef point_concept type; }; } What I want is to register all custom geometries in one step. Like: template<typename T> struct geometry_concept<T, typename std::enable_if<std::is_base_of<base_point, T>()>::type> { typedef point_concept type; }; To do that, I need to add a dummy template type to all the trait classes to enable SFINAE. Attached is the patch (based on boost 1.57.0_1). Is this something we can consider? Thanks, Leo Xue

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Transfer ownership of DLL into boostorg
by Antony Polukhin 19 Aug '15

19 Aug '15

Hi, I'd like to transfer Boost.DLL library ( https://github.com/apolukhin/Boost.DLL) into the boostorg. What's the current procedure for that? -- Best regards, Antony Polukhin

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[http] Boost.Http formal review is finished
by Bjorn Reese 19 Aug '15

19 Aug '15

The formal review of Boost.Http is finished, and I would like to thank all who participated. The following reviews have been recorded: - Antony Polukhin: No - Darren Cook: No - David Sankel: No - Lee Clagett: No - Niall Douglas: Yes, conditionally - Roland Bock: No - Tom Kent: No Please let me know if I have missed any. The final review results will be posted later.

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[core] Determining interest for two new classes: readonly and newtype
by Sam Kellett 19 Aug '15

19 Aug '15

Hey, I have two classes I've developed that have been used in my own projects that I think could have a place in Boost. They are outlined below. readonly<T>: This is a wrapper class for a type to replace a const-type field in a movable class. It has const access to the type so can't modify except for the move constructor and move assignment operator. This solves the problem that no fields in a movable class can be const which can cloud the intentions of a field. readonly copies the accessor patterns seen in classes such as optional and the smart pointer collection. Example: struct foo { foo() : str("hello world") {} readonly<std::string> str; }; foo f; auto g = std::move(f); static_assert(std::is_move_constructible<foo>{}, ""); std::cout << *g.str << std::endl; g.str->clear() // error: non-const method. ----- newtype<N, T> This is shamelessly ripped off from Haskell and provides strongly-typed typedefs to C++. It actually has two template parameters, one is an incomplete type that provides a unique identifier for this typedef. I've opted to use the name of the typedef with an '_t' suffix, the second is the raw type that it contains. Like readonly the underlying type can be accessed by operator*, operator-> and get() methods. Example: using age = newtype<struct age_t, int>; age a{25}; using byte = newtype<struct byte_t, int>; byte b{42}; // do something with bytes (*not* any old int). void bar(const byte); bar(a); // error: wrong type wanted 'byte' got 'age' bar(b); // okay bar(89); // error: wrong type wanted 'byte' got 'int' assert(*b == 42); Any thoughts on the design and/or their place in Boost would be much appreciated. Cheers, Sam

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[build] Algorithm for setting PATH when a 'run' or 'run-fail'
by Edward Diener 18 Aug '15

18 Aug '15

What is the algorithm for setting a PATH on Windows when the 'run' or 'run-fail' rule occurs in a jamfile ? In running clang on Windows when an executable is created the PATH needs to start with the bin directory of the mingw(-64)/gcc implementation that a particular version of clang uses as its RTL when the program is compiled/linked. It appears that when the 'run' or 'run-test' rule occurs with the clang toolset on Windows that the PATH is adjusted to have the directory of the clang++ executable and not that of the corresponding mingw(-64)/gcc RTL ? Is there any solution to this from within Boost Build ?

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[lclcontext] Any interest in Pythonesque "with-as" statement in C++.
by Mostafa 18 Aug '15

18 Aug '15

I think Python's concept of Context and Context Managers useful and I've adapted, to the best of my abilities, a similar concept in C++. For those not familiar with this concept, I'll quote a brief snippet from the documentation: "Simply stated, this library enables the use of the Pythonesque with-statement construct in C++. More broadly, this library seeks to formalize a generalized version of a subset of the RAII (Resource Acquisition is Initialization) idiom that, for the lack of preexisting terms, I shall refer here to as the STEP (Scope Triggered Event Processing) idiom. The STEP idiom is the commonly occurring use case where for a given block of code some user specified action(s) must execute on entry and on exit, and the failure to do so will result in some deterministic behavior." You can find the library here: https://github.com/m-w-a/WG Documentation is here: https://github.com/m-w-a/WG/tree/master/Local/Docs (In the same repository I've also redid Boost's local_function, but that the subject of another posting.) If there is enough interest from the community for such a library then I will go ahead and "Boostify" it.

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[http] Formal Review
by David Sankel 17 Aug '15

17 Aug '15

> 1. Should Boost.Http be accepted into Boost? Please state all conditions for acceptance explicity. No. This library unfortunately is not complete enough to be in Boost. > 2. What is your evaluation of the design? >From my reading, the design of the low level components that are in the library seems okay. > 3. What is your evaluation of the implementation? Looks okay from what I've seen. > 4. What is your evaluation of the documentation? More tutorials for common use cases are needed. I fear, though, that the only use case of these low-level components is the writing of a higher-level one on top of it that is more widely useful. > 5. What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? In its current state, I do not find this library very useful. A Boost HTTP library should support both client side and server side. Micro-services are quite commonly used these days and only communicating one direction excludes this library from having full participation. While I very much enjoy and appreciate the exposed lower-level functionality, higher level abstractions are required to scratch the itch most developers have when they want a C++ HTTP library. I could not recommend this library over pion for this reason even though I like this library's design better. In particular, we need really good stories for: a) How to fetch the contents of a website given a URL. b) How to make a static page server. c) How to write code that handles a POST or GET request dynamically based on specified parameters. d) How to write a server that accepts file uploads. e) HTTP/2.0 f) Websockets I would also like to see instances of this library being used in production. That would give some evidence that the design works in practice. There is the argument that we should accept this into Boost now because, once it has more features, it'll be really great. I think that Boost is for libraries that are already really great. I don't see how getting more exposure to an incomplete library helps either Boost or the library, but I do see how it can do damage to the Boost name. > 6. Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems? I built the library and ran the single example. I used gcc 5.2.0. I didn't run into any problems and was quite happy with this part of the review. > 7. How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? I spent a couple hours reading through the documentation and the mailing list discussions. > 8. Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? Yes. I'm the architect of a large C++-based web framework for the US Government. We currently use pion as our primary server and client low-level library. I've contributed some minor patches to pion. -- David Sankel

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