Re: [boost] [Review Request] Inclusion of the Boost.Polygon Voronoi Library

Subject: Re: [boost] [Review Request] Inclusion of the Boost.Polygon Voronoi Library
From: Andrii Sydorchuk (sydorchuk.andriy_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-05-21 17:59:35

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 6:14 PM, Simonson, Lucanus J <
lucanus.j.simonson_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> Andrii Sydorchuk wrote:
>
> >The main point is that this void* data member is not used by the
> algorithm at all. And is only exposed to simplify data association with
> voronoi primitives.
>
> Does it currently have any usage at all?

Just in the examples (basic tutorial and voronoi visualizer). For voronoi
visualizer (Qt application to render voronoi diagrams used for testing
purposes) I use the data field pointer to mark edges as visited during
depth first search. Will expand this in more details in the next email.

> I guess it depends on whether the user wants to traverse the voronoi
> diagram data structure as the input to their algorithm or copy it over to
> their own graph data structure.  I tend to think that copying to their own
> data structure will be pretty common.  It looks like the user can look up
> the input site for each cell in your voronoi_cell data structure.  If they
> hash or map the site to whatever data they want associated with the site
> they can at least make the association between the voronoi diagram and its
> input.  Unless there is a compelling reason I'd suggest just removing the
> user data interface.  As you mentioned, the user can always roll their own
> voronoi diagram data structure to use with the voronoi builder that they
> can extend with whatever additional data they want.
>

Agree, looks like the best way to resolve this design problem is to leave
it to the user.

Regards,
Andrii