On this recent slashdot thread, there seems to be more griping than advocacy regarding Boost and template metaprogramming: Any "Pretty" Code Out There? http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=250311&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=19862839 Just wondering if the Boost devs have any words of wisdom on this matter. Steve
In my experience of programming. I have worked mostly with Java and C++. I have found boost to be flexible, lightweight and powerful. The slashdot thread misrepresents boost. Boost might not be the fastest or least complex approach. Boost is a step forward for C++ in the right direction. Compared to the competition, especially .NET and Java I find it much easier to work with. Visual C++ 2003 copes fine with Boost and GCC also has few problems. Debugging Boost based code is no more difficult than C++ as the problem usually isn't in boost. Boost should be used more widely in business.
Well, instead of confronting these "experts" on the their actual knowledge of C++ vs "C with some nifty syntactic sugar," we should point out that VC 6.0 does not deal with (ISO) C++ and - more importantly - that C++ enables beauty of *use* of a library via complexity (viewed as "ugliness" by the untrained eye) of its *implementation*. I.e., one trades some hackery against beauty and non- redundancy of use. In fact, it would be enlightening to take this matter down to concrete code and show how a game engine task could be more succinctly expressed using the full power of C++ and Boost. I am willing to provide such a solution to any reasonably small sample code they present. Worrying about compilation time being two minutes greater makes an old geek like me smile. How about not programming according to the "apply random changes, recompile, suffer through errors and repeat" principle and instead actually thinking before hitting that compile button in that cute IDE. The only valid point that was presented was that of hairy error messages. Here the concept checkers of Boost can help, though. /David Sent from my iPhone On Jul 15, 2007, at 3:20 AM, "Steve Trutane" <trutane@gmail.com> wrote:
On this recent slashdot thread, there seems to be more griping than advocacy regarding Boost and template metaprogramming:
Any "Pretty" Code Out There? http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=250311&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=19862839
Just wondering if the Boost devs have any words of wisdom on this matter.
Steve _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost
On 7/15/07, David Bergman <David.Bergman@bergmangupta.com> wrote:
In fact, it would be enlightening to take this matter down to concrete code and show how a game engine task could be more succinctly expressed using the full power of C++ and Boost. I am willing to provide such a solution to any reasonably small sample code they present.
I've been toying with demonstrating snippets of C++ code for game engines as well, especially incorporating libraries like boost to reduce the mental surface area of what you have to know to write a successful piece of code. I have a domain set aside for it (www.techGnomes.com), just haven't found the right amount of time... /David
Sent from my iPhone
--andy Send from my fingers.
On 7/15/07, Andrew Finkenstadt <pbrane@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
I've been toying with demonstrating snippets of C++ code for game engines as well, especially incorporating libraries like boost to reduce the mental surface area of what you have to know to write a successful piece of code. I have a domain set aside for it (www.techGnomes.com), just haven't found the right amount of time...
That's too bad. I would really like to participate on this too. IMHO, game development could *really* get better with modern C++ in proper use. The first step, IMO, would be to start creating graphic engines and etc, which are not full-blown frameworks which try to do everything.
Sent from my iPhone
--andy
-- Felipe Magno de Almeida
On Jul 15, 2007, at 4:41 PM, Felipe Magno de Almeida wrote:
That's too bad. I would really like to participate on this too. IMHO, game development could *really* get better with modern C++ in proper use. The first step, IMO, would be to start creating graphic engines and etc, which are not full-blown frameworks which try to do everything.
Have you seen Ogre 3D? Anyway, we should setup a Boost Game Engine project, and promote it as an intrinsic part of TR 3 :-) /David Sent from my bulky laptop
on Sun Jul 15 2007, "Steve Trutane" <trutane-AT-gmail.com> wrote:
On this recent slashdot thread, there seems to be more griping than advocacy regarding Boost and template metaprogramming:
Any "Pretty" Code Out There? http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=250311&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=19862839
Just wondering if the Boost devs have any words of wisdom on this matter.
It looks like the number of sensible posts in that thread are about as much as anyone has a right to expect on slashdot. -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting http://www.boost-consulting.com The Astoria Seminar ==> http://www.astoriaseminar.com
On 7/15/07, Steve Trutane <trutane@gmail.com> wrote:
On this recent slashdot thread, there seems to be more griping than advocacy regarding Boost and template metaprogramming:
I'd say that any uglyness in Boost's code will be in the implementation - specifically hacks for compatibility with old or buggy platforms. If conforming C++09 compilers were ubiquitous, Boost would start looking a lot better. But that is many years off :/
Any "Pretty" Code Out There? http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=250311&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=19862839
Just wondering if the Boost devs have any words of wisdom on this matter.
Steve _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost
-- Cory Nelson http://www.int64.org
participants (8)
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Andrew Finkenstadt -
Caleb Epstein -
Cory Nelson -
David Abrahams -
David Bergman -
Felipe Magno de Almeida -
Jan -
Steve Trutane