Re: [boost] Re: What I Hate About How We Abstract System Dependence

From: Rob Stewart (stewart_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-03-08 11:33:37

From: Chris Just <cpjust_at_[hidden]>
> Rob Stewart wrote:

Actually, I didn't.  The attribution should be:

> Bob Bell <belvis_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> > 
> > Another possibility is to provide another level of indirection. For
> > example, boost::thread can have an accessor which returns a
> > boost::platform_thread, which has the OS thread ID, plus member functions
> > which mimic OS operations not reflected in the portable (boost::thread) API.
> > The advantage of this approach is that boost::platform_thread member
> > functions may be able to preserve invariants that otherwise might be broken
> > if the user was allowed to manipulate the underlying OS thread ID itself, and
> > if the coverage of the boost::platform_thread member functions is large
> > enough, it might not even be necessary to expose the OS thread ID at all.
> 
> This is exactly what I would like to see.  Boost::thread and other classes should be platform
> neutral, but provide a method to get at the private handles so that people can extend the class
> for specific platforms on their own.

Bob wasn't suggesting exposing the private handles.  Quite the
contrary.  He was suggesting returning a type that had access to
those private handles, but only via a platform-specific
interface.

> Another thing I would REALLY like to see is better documentation.  I'd love to use more Boost
> classes, but I don't have time to reverse engineer them to figure out how they work.

I'm sure the library authors would be interested in your patches
to improve their documentation! ;-)

Seriously, if you have specific needs that aren't being met, you
need to address them on a library-by-library basis.  Furthermore,
when possible, submit patches with additions that would help
others like yourself in the future.

-- 
Rob Stewart                           stewart_at_[hidden]
Software Engineer                     http://www.sig.com
Susquehanna International Group, LLP  using std::disclaimer;