Re: [JSON][Review] Boost Json Review

From: Hadriel Kaplan (hadrielk_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-09-21 00:57:22

> On Sep 20, 2020, at 6:52 PM, Maximilian Riemensberger via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
> - The library is inconsistent about `shrink_to_fit`.  `object does not have it,
>  `array` has it.  Also the documentation does not state what `shrink_to_fit`
>  does, basically repeating the errors of `std::vector`.  I firmly believe that
>  the function should either be removed or clear and precise semantics should
>  be documented.  In it's current state the following question comes to mind:
>  Why would I ever want to call it?
> 

Personally I prefer it keep it. In my day job I deal with very large json structures (sometimes over 1GB), and they get copied around. Boost.JSON is already more efficient than what we currently use, but I’m greedy. :)

As an example, Boost.JSON's serializer allocates a lot more memory in the returned string than is actually used, in my testing. Using std::string::shrink_to_fit() it dropped about 50% of the memory usage. If std::string didn’t have such a function, I wouldn’t get that benefit.

But I agree it should be clear what it does in the docs.

-hadriel