Alexander Nasonov wrote:
- What is your evaluation of the documentation?
The documentation says more about implementation details rather then public interface.
Ok. I will try and address this when I rewrite the documentation.
All constructors and assignment operators don't have a documentation, they're only listed. All other functions are not even listed!
I think this is because I am using the doxygen named group feature. /** @name Group */ //@{ //@} and that is not pulling in all the functions :(.
I realise that these functions are implemented in fixed_string_base but this is not documented (I'm pretty sure it's a typo, public keyword does never come alone)
I think this one is because the fixed_string_base (and fixed_string_impl) classes are in the details namespace and these are removed when the doxygen documentation is being pulled into the Boost docs.
- What is your evaluation of the design?
fixed_string is derived from fixed_string_base. IIUC, the rationale is to get rid of compile-time N in fixed_string<N>. What is inappropriate, is that fixed_string copies arrays while fixed_string_base copies pointers. For example,
fixed_string_base foo() { return fixed_string<10>("Return a pointer to local array"); }
I think Martin Adrian's solution would work well here. You would then have basic_string_impl (or something similar) to implement all the repetitive basic_string functions, fixed_string< CharT, n > for operating on fixed-length buffers and fixed_string_any< CharT > for operating on any length character buffers.
Truncating the string silently is also not a good way. This often leads to errors at later stage of execution thus making it diffuct to track down an origin. For example, a developer appends ".ext" in one place to make sure that all files have extention, then in another place he rseaches for '.' expecting that it never returns npos.
Having an overrun_policy, as Martin suggests, would allow you to use a throwing policy to avoid this.
I didn't try to compile anything because I simply can't compile anything:
gcc version 3.2.2
$ g++ -I. -I ../boost_1_33_0/ test.cpp In file included from ./boost/fixed_string/fixed_string.hpp:12, from test.cpp:1: ./boost/fixed_string/detail/basic_string_impl.hpp: In member function `typename Base::const_iterator boost::detail::basic_string_impl<Base, ErrorPolicy>::begin() const': ./boost/fixed_string/detail/basic_string_impl.hpp:149: error: there are no arguments to `begin_' that depend on a template parameter, so a declaration of `begin_' must be available ./boost/fixed_string/detail/basic_string_impl.hpp:149: error: (if you use `-fpermissive', G++ will accept your code, but allowing the use of an undeclared name is deprecated)
In order to get this to work, I'll need to use the derived().begin_ technique used by the iterator implementations.
- How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study?
Quick reading.
Sorry for all bad news for you, Reece. Es ist nicht so schlimm :)))
Was toten Unser nicht, macht Unser stärker. (Sorry if I have mangled the grammar, as I can't speak German fluently.) Thanks for the feedback, - Reece