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[SoC] Submission Template
by Andrew Sutton 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

I've created a student submission template as part of the SoC application (which I'm currently working on). It's largely reconstructed from last year's template, with a couple of modifications. Can mentors from previous years and prospective mentors for this year please look over the template to see if there's any other information that might be useful? It can be found here: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoCSubmissionTemplate Thanks, Andrew Sutton andrew.n.sutton(a)gmail.com

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Re: [boost] [contract] Released Contract Programming Library on SourceForge
by Andrzej Krzemienski 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

> I have released on SourceForge a library that implements Contract > Programming (a.k.a. Design by Contract(TM) ) for C++. I am considering > to submit this library to Boost (as Boost.Contract). > > Comments? Hi, As I already said, I am very glad that we can see a good Contract library for C++. I have not used it yet, but I base my first opinion on the documentation; the topics it mentions (sub-contracting, disabling contract checking within contract checks, the "oldof"), and references, proves that you have thoroughly investigated the subject. This is first such library for C++ that I am aware of. I am almost sure I will not use it in my work, in production code. I have trouble convincing my colleagues to use templates, as they are not used to "non-Java" syntax, and they find it suspicious. I am not sure how I would be able to convince anyone to writing: (class)(copyable)(myvector)(inherit)(pushable<T>)(public)(void)(push_back)( (const T&)(element) ) I am not even convinced myself. The IntelliSense will go mad. I understand the constraints you are under, but still... Perhaps if you do require this syntax, you should offer something more in exchange than only contract checking: hooks for IntelliSense, meta-data of contract-checked functions that the user can use like other type traits, etc... On the other hand, I believe the library is a very important step to introducing contract checking into C++ standard. Contracts were labeled as "No active interest today, but open to resubmit in future". Having gained a practical experience with C++ contracts, both implementability and usage, may be a good argument for reconsidering the proposal. C++ is so particular a language that the experience from Eiffel, which is mainly an OO language, usually would not apply; for instance, I could define equality as: bool operator==( MyType const& lhs, MyType const& rhs postcondition( result ) { result == !( lhs != rhs ); }; bool operator!= MyType const& lhs, MyType const& rhs ) postcondition( result ) { result == !( lhs == rhs ); }; or: bool operator==( MyType const& lhs, MyType const& rhs ); template< typename T > bool operator!=( T const& a, T const& b ) { return !(a == b); } // no post-condition required Which solution should I prefer? For an another example, if I am a defensive programmer, should I write: int compute_area() const postcondition( ans ) { ans > 0; }; or: unsigned int compute_area() const postcondition( ans ) { ans != 0; }; or: PositiveInteger compute_area() const; // compile-time checking - even better Similarly, for loop variants, I would be interested to know how it can or cannot or need not be used in more c++ specific loops: for( auto v : setOfValues ) { process(v); } How do I define a variant? Or is a variant needed? Perhaps the sole usage of "for each" guarantees termination? Or this one: std::ofsteam file("input.txt"); std::string text; while( file >> text ) { process(text); } Regards, &rzej

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Re: [boost] [gil] External header files.
by Daniel James 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

On 1 March 2010 18:54, Enrique Nieloud <enieloud(a)gertrudisgraphics.com> wrote: > > I just wanted to report that the following two links are broken: > > boost/gil/extension/numeric/sampler.hpp > boost/gil/extension/numeric/resample.hpp > > > In the file: > http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_42_0/libs/gil/example/resize.cpp That's a pain. The html file is generated automatically from the source file, which states that it's including files that don't come with boost. It'd be better if they weren't expected to be in the boost file system. Daniel

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[asio] Generating docs from trunk drops reference links
by Mateusz Loskot 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

Hi, I'm generating HTML docs for Boost.Asio from sources in SVN trunk (r60372) and I've noticed that all elements in Core -> Free Functions section of the Reference are not linked (Core, second column from left) So, all the links in this box point to HTML docs root directory file:///home/mloskot/dev/boost/_svn/trunk/libs/asio/doc/html/ However, the docs on website for Asio in Boost 1.42 does look correct: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_42_0/doc/html/boost_asio/reference.html While generating, Boostbook (or Quickbook) does report this problem as follows: Error: no ID for constraint linkend: boost_asio.reference.read. Error: no ID for constraint linkend: boost_asio.reference.write. ... I'm generating the docs by executing sequence of two commands: mloskot@dog:~/dev/boost/_svn/trunk/libs/asio/doc$ perl doxy2qbk.pl mloskot@dog:~/dev/boost/_svn/trunk/libs/asio/doc$ bjam --v2 I attached boost-asio-docs-gen-log.txt.zip with .txt file which contains complete output of these two commands. I'm working on Linux Ubuntu 9.10 (64-bit) with the tools of versions: $ doxygen --version 1.6.1 $ bjam --version Boost.Build V2 (Milestone 12) Boost.Jam 03.1.18 $ quickbook --version Quickbook Version 1.5 Am I doing anything wrong or missing any step or Asio docs generator has changed after 1.42? Best regards, -- Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net Charter Member of OSGeo, http://osgeo.org

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Re: [boost] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Brian Wood 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Joachim Faulhaber writes: >2010/3/7 Brian Wood <woodbrian77(a)gmail.com>: >> I was being blunt in order to let you know where I stand. >> I think the ITL is an interesting library and we may add >> marshalling support for it at some point. ? My suggestion >> is to not use the exact same class names in your library >> as are already used in the standard library. ? With the >> Boost::Intrusive library there is some of that as well. >> However, he has a class called ?rbtree that is an >> alternative to intrusive::(set and multiset). ?That rbtree >> class I support while for the time being I don't support >> the intrusive set or multiset. ? ?I'm not familiar enough >> with your library to know if an itl_rbtree class would be >> workable, but mention it just in case. > > Why not just support the class templates with the names that you like > and just ignoring the rest? I may do that. I was hoping to hear your thoughts on the itl_rbtree idea. Brian Wood http://webEbenezer.net (651) 251-9384

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Boost.Atomic on OSX Leopard, x86-32?
by Josh Faust 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Hey all, I'm having some trouble getting Boost.Atomic working properly on OSX Leopard. After wrangling compilation (all instances of "lock" -> "lock;", and "+r" -> "+q"), I'm hitting what looks like bad generated assembly. The following code, compiled with -O2: #include <boost/atomic.hpp> #include <stdio.h> using namespace boost; int main() { signed char a1, c1; char a2, c2; { atomic<char> a(41); char c = a++; a1 = a.load(); c1 = c; } { atomic<signed char> a(41); signed char c = a++; a2 = a.load(); c2 = c; } printf("%d %d\n", a1, c1); printf("%d %d\n", a2, c2); } produces: Macintosh-2:test josh$ ./simple2 42 41 93 41 Changing the first atomic to be the same type as the second (atomic<signed char>) produces the correct output (42 41 for both). This same problem shows up with int vs. unsigned int as well (have only tested those two). The assembly that produces the correct output: LCFI2: movl $1, %ecx ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Move 1 into ecx movl %esp, %ebp LCFI3: movl %ecx, %eax ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ And eax subl $72, %esp LCFI4: movl %ebx, -12(%ebp) LCFI5: movl %esi, -8(%ebp) LCFI6: movl %edi, -4(%ebp) LCFI7: call L11 "L00000000001$pb": L11: popl %ebx movb $41, -25(%ebp) lock; xaddb %al, -25(%ebp) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ first reference after assignment to eax (through al) movzbl -25(%ebp), %edx lock; addl $0, (%esp) movb $41, -25(%ebp) lock; xaddb %cl, -25(%ebp) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ first reference after assignment to ecx (through cl) movl %ecx, %edi movzbl -25(%ebp), %ecx movb %cl, -41(%ebp) lock; addl $0, (%esp) The assembly that produces the incorrect output (when one is atomic<char> and the other is atomic<signed char>): movl $1, %eax ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Move 1 into eax movl %esp, %ebp LCFI3: subl $72, %esp LCFI4: movl %ebx, -12(%ebp) LCFI5: movl %esi, -8(%ebp) LCFI6: movl %edi, -4(%ebp) LCFI7: call L11 "L00000000001$pb": L11: popl %ebx movb $41, -25(%ebp) lock; xaddb %al, -25(%ebp) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ First reference after assignment to eax (through al) movzbl -25(%ebp), %edx lock; addl $0, (%esp) movb $41, -25(%ebp) lock; xaddb %cl, -25(%ebp) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ First reference to ecx (through cl), but NO ASSIGNMENT. cl is garbage? movl %ecx, %edi movzbl -25(%ebp), %ecx movb %cl, -41(%ebp) lock; addl $0, (%esp) I am by no means an assembly expert (this has been a huge learning experience in fact) but this doesn't look right. I'm on: gcc version 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5493) OSX 10.5.8, Intel Core 2 Duo (2.16 GHz) Just pulled a git clone of Boost.Atomic from http://git.chaoticmind.net/boost.atomic, rev. 886a675aa982ab5875c7bc98697b2eb26c134d03 (I think... I have no experience with git, just grabbed the top guid from "git log"). building without -O2 yields correct results. Anyone with more knowledge than I have any ideas? Am I being stupid and something else is wrong? Josh

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Re: [boost] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Brian Wood 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Joachim Faulhaber writes: >2010/3/7 Brian Wood <woodbrian77(a)gmail.com>: >> Joachim Faulhaber writes: >> > >> If you stick >> with the names of some of the classes that you have today, >> at the very least, I'll put off developing marshalling support for >> the library. > >To give you a little feed back: The sentence above didn't exactly make >me feel in peace with you ;-/ But I'm open for your suggestions. I was being blunt in order to let you know where I stand. I think the ITL is an interesting library and we may add marshalling support for it at some point. My suggestion is to not use the exact same class names in your library as are already used in the standard library. With the Boost::Intrusive library there is some of that as well. However, he has a class called rbtree that is an alternative to intrusive::(set and multiset). That rbtree class I support while for the time being I don't support the intrusive set or multiset. I'm not familiar enough with your library to know if an itl_rbtree class would be workable, but mention it just in case. Regards, Brian Wood http://webEbenezer.net (651) 251-9384

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Re: [boost] [Boost-users] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Joachim Faulhaber 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Hi Jeff, thank you for your review of the ITL. You have been supportive in the course of the development at different points giving feed back about shortcomings and helping with code patches and useful suggestions. I am glad to hear that you are actually using the library for real world applications already. 2010/3/8 Jeff Flinn <TriumphSprint2000(a)hotmail.com>: >> Please always state in your review, whether you think the library should >> be >> accepted as a Boost library. > > Yes, I think the library (with the interface improvements brought out during > the review) should be accepted into boost. I've already successfully used > the library with it's existing interface in a commercial product. > >> - What is your evaluation of the design? > > As brought up during the course of the review period my main concerns for > the library's interface are: > > 1) the bloated size of the interval class with it's dynamic bound data > member. This is being addressed by Joachim providing an interface to allow > use of static bound interval classes. > > 2) the fat interface on the interval class. In my view the myriad of > mutators would best be replaced with free functions in terms of the > interval's extents and return a interval passing the calculated extents to > an interval constructor which enforces the interval's invariant(s). There > should also be a method to construct an interval given unordered extents > that effectively does interval(min(arg1, arg2), max(arg1, arg2)). > > 3) better integration of std and user defined data types en lieu of itl's > specific types. Joachim has agreed to improvements in this area. I think we have agreed in the various points involved. > 4) I'd also like to see std::inserter "just work" with the containers. I discovered that it does not just work, because for std::insert_iterator there is an invariant involved that expects the inserted to be a non empty element of the container, that the element is inserted into. This invariant is broken with interval containers because an interval/segment is not an element of an interval container. > I shouldn't have to expect to look for the itl specific adder to do this. This > was the most common usage my applications had for populating interval > containers using std::copy/transform from my applications existing data > structures. > >> - What is your evaluation of the implementation? > > Seems adequate. I was able to port to the portions I needed to CodeWarrior > 9.4 (from 2003?). IIRC, Joachim integrated the changes(simplifications) that > allowed itl to work in this environment. I added all the changes suggested, but I remember that important parts of the code, itl global operators in particular, still did not compile with CW. I tried to set up CW myself, but encountered too many problems and gave up :( > Performance for the scale of problems I've been dealing with were fine, but > as has been discussed scaling to larger sizes of millions of items may > require some specialized containers. I don't see this as a problem, it's > analogous to std::map and std::unordered_map. I share this view. > Hmm, It just occurs to me that for my application I could void the N^2 size > issue of a split_interval_map<int, set<> > with a non_combining_map<int, > data> that allowed me to iterate through all items that overlap with an > arbitrary interval in and ordered fashion. That's not much different from a > std::map<interval, data>, but with some more interval specific wrapping of > the upper/lower_bound/equal_range methods. > >> - What is your evaluation of the documentation? > > I was able to get up and running fairly quickly. As discussed some of the > colorful terminology got in the way rather than helping. Also I had expected > to just be able to populate with std::inserter, and had trouble finding docs > related to this. The example for copy/transform helped, but even during this > review I have trouble finding the docs for itl::adder/inserter. True, escaped my notice. Has to be added. >> - What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? > > Very, I've come across needs for this capability in 3 different jobs in 3 > very different industries. I've had domain specific solutions and was > looking to create just such a generic library when Joachim submitted his > library. That's interesting. I had the basic ideas and first implementation in 1999 / 2000 and I had the immediate impression that it should be made available to the public domain. But due to other projects and commercial copyright of the first version, I did not have the opportunity to make it open source for years. I always thought someone else would be faster than me ;) >> - Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any >> problems? > > Yes, the library is being used in a commercial application built with > CodeWarrior 9.4 on Mac/Windows and with VC8 and XCode 3.x. The library > required some modifications to the template declarations for CodeWarrior. Is it now fully or still only partially compilable with CW? >> - How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick >> reading? In-depth study? > > I read through the documentation, integrated the library with production > code, dug through compilation error messages and headers on CodeWarrior to > port a portion of the library. I've profiled code using itl to understand > performance implications. > >> - Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? > > Yes, I've designed/implemented/optimized integral open-closed Interval and > IntervalSet classes for use in previous projects. Thanks again for your review and the support that you provided for the ITL library. Cheers, Joachim

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[program_options]
by Thorsten Ottosen 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Hi, I tried using bpo::options_description desc("Allowed options"); desc.add_options() (HELP, "produce help message"); but this fails to compile because HELP is an std::string. Isn't that a bit too restrictive? -Thorsten

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is review system in place is extremely slow? (was Re: [rfc] rcpp)
by vicente.botet 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Hi, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mathias Gaunard" <mathias.gaunard(a)ens-lyon.org> To: <boost(a)lists.boost.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:47 PM Subject: Re: [boost] [rfc] rcpp > > Ivan Sorokin wrote: >> 3 When will Boost.Move become a part of boost? > > When it gets reviewed. > It could be said, however, that the review system in place is extremely > slow and that it's going to take years (literally). Why do you think the review system in place is extremely slow? 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) I'm the review manager of Boost.Task but the library is not ready for review, because now Boost.Task depends on Boost.Move, Boost.Fiber and Boost.Atomic (which is not yet on the review queue). Maybe the review withards could add this on the schedule page. What do you propose to improve it? Best, _____________________ Vicente Juan Botet Escribá

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Cooperative Multi-Tasking
by Daniel Larimer 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

I am curious whether anyone here has experience with any cross-platform cooperative multi-tasking libraries? I am familiar with the Boost.Coroutine library, but it only provides the "primitives" or "threads". What I am looking for is something much higher level that hides all of the coroutine details behind a asynchronous function call / future API. Something along the line of ASIO for coroutines. I am guessing that Boost.Asio would benefit from such a library. It seems obvious to me now that coroutines / cooperative multi-tasking is the superior approach to solving problems with a large number of actors and "locks" where heavy weight preemptive scheduling would bog down the system. Considering that cooperative multitasking is a very old concept, are there any reasons why there are no obvious libraries / scheduling systems in place? Does everyone "roll their own" or do they avoid it for some other reason? Dan

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[Tokenmap] A (perfect) hash container library chcked-in to sandbox (RFC)
by Slawomir Lisznianski 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/tokenmap/libs/tokenmap/doc/html/inde… A tokenmap is a data structure that uniquely maps pseudo-random generated keys with elements of the collection. Boost.Tokenmap is a (perfect) hash container library for C++. An important distinction between tokenmap and other dictionary-like containers, such as std::map or Boost.Unordered, is that tokenmap generates keys internally (referred to as "tokens") rather than relying on user to provide them. Specifically, when a new element is inserted into the tokenmap, an apparently random key is returned back to the caller which uniquely maps to the stored element. The returned key can later be used in a very efficient lookup. Although the code and documentation are far from complete, the implementation in the repo is functional and hopefully serves as a basis for further work. Slawomir

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[Itl] Review
by Phil Endecott 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

My review of the proposed Interval Template Library follows. This is based only on studying the documentation, and previous discussion of the library on the Boost mailing list (e.g. http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2009/03/149396.php ). Joachim has clearly put a lot of work into what is a substantial and well-documented library. Unfortunately, it seems to me that it is built on a weak foundation. One of the most well-known problems involving intervals is to determine which of a given set of intervals contains a particular point. How to store a set of intervals in such a way as to make this problem efficient has been extensively studied. If an "interval tree" (See e.g. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_tree) is used, then the problem can be answered in logarithmic time and linear space. (More precisely: if there are N intervals in the container and M overlap the point of interest, finding them should take O(M + log N) time and the data structure should take O(N) space.) I was hoping to find that this library was an implementation of an interval tree. But it is not: it is built on top of normal standard-library containers. The implementation used can find the intervals that overlap a point in O(M + log N) time, but to do so it needs worst-case O(N^2) space and I think it needs O(N^2 log N) time to build that structure. Presumably this complexity is not an issue in Joachim's application. Unfortunately, library code will be used in many different applications including those where optimal complexity is required. For example, consider trying to store the lifespans of people in a genealogy program: recording a few thousand people living over a few hundred years would approach the worse-case space complexity and need megabytes of storage. Perhaps other reviewers will feel that there are sufficient applications where this library is suitable to justify its inclusion in Boost. My feeling is that since the interval tree data structure is so well known and its performance is so much better, we should not accept this library. Ideally it would be possible for Joachim to replace ITL's current standard containers with an interval tree implementation. Could an interval tree be implemented with an interval sufficiently similar to a std::set/map to make that possible, without losing the complexity benefits? Once again, I believe that apart from this weak foundation this looks like an excellent submission that is comprehensive and well-documented. Regards, Phil.

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[Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Hartmut Kaiser 07 Mar '10

07 Mar '10

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. Use cases of such computations typically occur in the date and time problem domain, when collections of time intervals with associated data are analyzed, combined and aggregated. But the scope of applications for interval containers is more general and not limited to date and time problems. Interval containers allow to 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. * There is iterator support on the level of segments and interval containers can be combined with stl containers of intervals via stl algorithms. * For discrete domain types, element iterators are available which makes interval sets and maps models of SortedAssociative Containers so they can be used with many stl algorithms. All interval containers are addable and subtractable. The addability and subtractability concept of the ITL leads to a general mechanism of aggregation on interval_maps which is called 'aggregate on overlap'. Exploiting 'aggregate on overlap' allows to compute many useful aggregation results in a simple and abstract manner. The ITL's Set and Map concepts are defined by a signature and collections of laws or axioms. Those semantical constraints have been validated using automatic law based tests. This gives the library both a well founded formal specification and an unusual thorough test base. The ITL emerged out of real world use cases and is successfully used at Cortex Software GmbH since a couple of years in the production code of various applications. On the boost developer's list it has been proposed in four previews and a review request since May 2008 and has been refactored and refined according to boost standards and suggestions from the list. The ITL is available from the boost vault: http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=itl_3_2 _0.zip&directory=Containers Documentation is online available at: http://www.herold-faulhaber.de/boost_itl/doc/libs/itl/doc/html/index.html The current sources are in the sandbox: https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/itl/ ------------------------------------------------ Everybody on this list is invited to participate in this formal review. I hope to see your review of this library, including your vote, and I welcome your participation in the discussions on the Boost mailing list. Please always state in your review, whether you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library. Additionally, please consider giving feedback on the following general topics: - What is your evaluation of the design? - What is your evaluation of the implementation? - What is your evaluation of the documentation? - What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? - Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems? - How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study? - Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? Regards Hartmut Review Manager --------------- Meet me at BoostCon www.boostcon.com

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[Boost][Test] Small issue with explicit function initialization
by Sylvain Bougerel 07 Mar '10

07 Mar '10

Hi, I'm not sure if it's an issue or not. But I noticed that the given code does not compile: #define BOOST_TEST_MAIN #include <boost/test/included/unit_test.hpp> template <typename Tp1, typename Tp2> inline Tp2 stupid_cast (const Tp1& arg) { return static_cast<Tp2>(arg); } BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE( test_details_key ) { BOOST_CHECK(stupid_cast<float, int>(1.0) == 1); } It give the following error with g++ (GCC) 4.4.3: try.cpp:40:48: error: macro "BOOST_CHECK" passed 2 arguments, but takes just 1 try.cpp: In member function 'void test_details_key::test_method()': try.cpp:40: error: 'BOOST_CHECK' was not declared in this scope While the following does compile (and runs well): #define BOOST_TEST_MAIN #include <boost/test/included/unit_test.hpp> template <typename Tp1, typename Tp2> inline Tp2 stupid_cast (const Tp1& arg) { return static_cast<Tp2>(arg); } BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE( test_details_key ) { BOOST_CHECK((stupid_cast<float, int>(1.0) == 1)); // <----- I wrapped it in parenthesis } So I was wondering whether the BOOST_<level> macro (I did check that the others suffer the same problem) are expected to behave in this way, or they are just missing an extra layer of parenthesis around the arguments, or even GCC is at fault, or I'm missing something definitely... Regards, Sylvain

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Re: [boost] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Brian Wood 07 Mar '10

07 Mar '10

Joachim Faulhaber writes: > Let me put it this way: > std::set : could be model of itl::Set, if operators were implemented > itl::set : is model of itl::Set > itl::interval_set : is model of itl::Set but implemented via intervals > boost::dynamic_bitset : is almost model of itl::Set but implemented > via arrays of machine words. Joachim and I have previously discussed the names of some of the classes in his library in the context of serialization: *http://preview.tinyurl.com/y86phqg* I don't have plans yet to add support for this library to the C++ Middleware Writer, but I would suggest that you consider where you will be able to come up with serialization support for the library. I believe your options will be to add it yourself with Boost Serialization or go without it. If you stick with the names of some of the classes that you have today, at the very least, I'll put off developing marshalling support for the library. Brian Wood http://webEbenezer.net (651) 251-9384 "Then Samuel took a rock and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer [Rock of Help] and said, 'Until now the L-RD has helped us.'"

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[transact] Handling with user exceptions
by vicente.botet 07 Mar '10

07 Mar '10

Hi, I would like to initiate a discussion on how to manage with user exceptions. Here follows some thougth I'm implementing in Boost.STM. There are two main ways to manage with user exceptions: * exceptions commit transactions - corresponds to the current C++ behavior * exceptions abort on exit - corresponds to rollback The behavior associated to the curent language-like macros is to throw the catched exception. In this case, the exception shouldn't contain references to transaction specific objects. I was wondering if we cannot add a second family of macros that before a user exception leaves the transaction block the transaction is commited. BOOST_TRANSACT_A_ family will abort the transaction on user exception BOOST_TRANSACT_C_ family will commit the transaction on user exception This will allows to explore which both approaches, and see which approach is more usable, or if there is an approach that is better adapted to some particuler contexts. * Exceptions Commit Transactions - How to get this? While trying to commit on destruction we have catched any exception to release the commit_on_destruction variable. commit_on_destruction __comm( __txn ) ; t ry { i f ( false ) ; else / / to for ce a sentence / / t r a n s a c t i o n sentence } catch ( . . . ) { __comm. release ( ) ; throw ; } To make exception commit transactions by default, we should not release the committer. However, we need to avoid exception throw by commit when the transaction has been set as forced to abort or during unwinding exception. commit_on_destruction __comm( __txn ) ; t ry { <sentence > } catch ( . . . ) { i f ( __txn_.forced_to_abort ( ) ) __comm.release ( ) ; else __comm.commit ( ) ; throw ; } We need how to override the default behavior. If we have Exceptions Commit Transactions - we can abort the transaction in two ways: * Explicit try-block to Abort Transactions * Explicitly abort before throw - Explicit try-block to Abort Transactions The user may want the exception abort the transaction while leaving the transaction block. The user must explicitly state that this is the desired behavior by adding a try-catch block as shown below: BOOST_STM_C_TRANSACTION t ry { / / t r a n s a c t i o n block } catch (Ex&) { BOOST_STM_ABORT( ) ; throw ; } BOOST_STM_C_END_TRANSACTION; - Explicitly abort before throw The user may want the transaction to be aborted before throwing an exception. The user may explicitly state that this is the desired either by setting the current transaction as forced to abort, BOOST_STM_ABORT( ) ; throw except ( ) ; or by throwing the exception using the macro : / / . . . BOOST_STM_ABORT_AND_THROW( except ( ) ) ; / / . . . If we have Exceptions Abort on Exit we can commit the transaction as follows: - Explicit try-block to Commit Transactions The user must explicitly state that this is the desired behavior by adding a try-catch block as shown below: BOOST_STM_TRANSACTION t ry { / / t r a n s a c t i o n block } catch (Ex &ex ) { BOOST_STM_COMMIT( ) ; throw ; } BOOST_STM_END_TRANSACTION; boost::exception_ptr error; BOOST_STM_TRANSACTION t ry { / / t r a n s a c t i o n block } catch (Ex &) { error=boost::current_exception(); } BOOST_STM_END_TRANSACTION; if( error) boost::rethrow_exception(error); } Please let me know what do you think? Do you find this useful? Should we provide two families of macros? Best regards, _____________________ Vicente Juan Botet Escribá

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[Review] The review of the ITL library ends today, March 7th
by Hartmut Kaiser 07 Mar '10

07 Mar '10

Hey all, The review of Joachim Faulhabers ITL library ends today, March 7th 2010. Please get your reviews in today or get in contact with me to agree on some offline schedule. Regards Hartmut Review Manager --------------- Meet me at BoostCon www.boostcon.com

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Re: [boost] [transact] transaction language macros (was: Re: [transact] code in sandbox)
by vicente.botet 07 Mar '10

07 Mar '10

Hi, ----- Original Message ----- From: <strasser(a)uni-bremen.de> To: "vicente.botet" <vicente.botet(a)wanadoo.fr> Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2010 3:55 PM Subject: Re: [boost] [transact] transaction language macros (was: Re: [transact] code in sandbox) > > hi again, > > another thing, are you experienced with the various parsing libraries > of boost? No, I have made only some toy examples with Spirit long time ago. > I know that they're not capable of analyzing C++ code, but it seems to > me that the code transformation required for our little language > extension is fairly simple. > > boost has compliant preprocessor, so macros aren't a problem. > the most complicated thing would be to detect if a transaction is in a > user-loop or not, so the grammar would have to be able to read > for/while/... loops and correctly parse c++ scopes. > does anything like that already exist? To do something like that I will use LLVM that gives already this possibility. Of course starting to use LLVM will be not easy, but will open much more possibilities than a specific parsing. Best, Vicente

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Re: [boost] [Boost-users] [Review] ITL review starts today, February 18th
by Joachim Faulhaber 06 Mar '10

06 Mar '10

Hi John, thank you for reviewing the ITL library! 2010/3/3 John Reid <j.reid(a)mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk>: > Hartmut Kaiser wrote: >> >> The ITL is available from the boost vault: >> >> http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=itl_3_2 >> _0.zip&directory=Containers > > I have to say first I have been evaluating the version of ITL called > itl_plus_3_2_1 rather than the version in the boost vault. Perhaps someone > can tell me whether that is a big mistake or not. Using itl_plus_3_2_1 is completely ok. It is a later release than the review version itl_3_2_0. But the differences are marginal. Also itl_plus_3_2_1 contains more than the core library that is submitted for review. But you did not refer to these parts. So everything is fine. >> Please always state in your review, whether you think the library should >> be >> accepted as a Boost library. > > I think it should be accepted subject to the inclusion of an interval tree > implementation. > >> >> - What is your evaluation of the design? > > I suspect that making the open/closedness of an interval a template > parameter would suit more users although I don't have a strong opinion on > this one. There has been a discussion on this point already. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/199905 For continuous data types it seems like interval bounds are needed as data member. For intervals of integral types the bound_type can be a static property. I will adapt the design in this point. >> - What is your evaluation of the implementation? > > I would have liked to see interval trees in the implementation. For what > I've needed the library for so far this has not been a problem as most of > the intervals don't overlap. In the future I can see use cases where the > lack of interval trees would make the library impractical. I don't know how > much impact adding an interval tree implementation would have on the > existing interface. I think the current implementation has its value and application. It should not and can not completely be replaced by an implementation based on an interval_tree. This would improve certain use cases but lead to problems in others. I will report on this in more detail. An interval_tree based split_interval_map will be a valuable optimization that should be done as an additional class template. The current implementation is fully functional, correct, useful and efficient in most cases of application. >> - What is your evaluation of the documentation? > > Good. A tutorial would be a welcome addition. Some functions were > undocumented, I'm assuming they're documented in the review version. The "handcrafted" documentation relates to the major interface of overloaded functions and function templates. In order to keep that short, more specific functions are only documented in the part of the documentation that is generated from doxygen comments: http://www.joachim-faulhaber.de/boost_itl/doc/libs/itl/doc/html/interval_te… And yes, there may be few that have been forgotten. Please tell me, which ones you missed specifically. >> - What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? > > Very useful. It seems to have many applications in several different > domains. > >> - Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any >> problems? > > I used gcc 4.4.1 and boost.python to make a python module for most of the > main elements of the library. I used this module successfully in an > application in genomics. However so far I have only had use for the > SplitIntervalMap so I have not used most of the library. > >> - How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick >> reading? In-depth study? > > A reasonable amount - enough to get up to speed and use the library. > >> - Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? > > Not especially. > Thank you again. Best regards, Joachim

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[BGL] Testing a graph for bipartiteness
by Matthias Walter 06 Mar '10

06 Mar '10

Hi, I'm working on a project where I need to determine whether a given graph is bipartite (possible yielding certificates for the two cases). As such a test can be perfectly implemented via BFS and visitor patterns, I wondered why there is no implementation in the BGL. Is there any reason or am I just to blind to find it? If I'm forced to write my own one, how about submitting it to BGL? best regards Matthias Walter

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[numeric][ublas] trunk testing broken
by K. Noel Belcourt 06 Mar '10

06 Mar '10

Hi, Trunk testing broke with this commit: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/60156 Here's the error message. error: Unable to find file or target named error: 'test_coordinate_matrix_sort.cpp' error: referred from project at error: '../libs/numeric/ublas/test' Could someone please add this missing file or revert the commit? Thanks. -- Noel

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[propertytree] Own storage
by Adam Badura 06 Mar '10

06 Mar '10

Are end users allowed to provide own parsers to populate property tree? For example for the (not yet available) Windows Registry? Or is this discouraged? If not then maybe adding a simple example to the documentation would be a good idea? Adam Badura

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[log] init methods and named parameters
by Michael Caisse 05 Mar '10

05 Mar '10

I've gotten a head start looking at the boost.log library that will be reviewed in a couple weeks. The utility methods utilize boost.parameter's named parameters. For example, boost::log::init_log_to_file. I would like to decide at runtime (via a config file) which set of parameters will listed. For example, rotation_size or rotation_interval or both. It is my first real use of boost.parameter so I may be missing something that is common knowledge. I don't see an easy way to do this. I thought maybe building a fusion sequence of parameters or something like that was the way to go... Looking for guidance. Thanks. michael -- ---------------------------------- Michael Caisse Object Modeling Designs www.objectmodelingdesigns.com

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filesystem utf-8 support?
by Jochen Wilhelmy 05 Mar '10

05 Mar '10

Hi! I wonder if boost::filesystem has support for utf-8. especially for windows this means that all path names have to be converted from utf-16 to utf-8 and back internally by boost::filesystem. for unix-like systems this may not be necessary as the locale can be set to utf-8 but auto-conversion for non-utf-8 locales would still be good. -Jochen

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