RE: [boost] Math Constants Library formal review results

From: John Maddock (John_Maddock_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-05-12 06:25:29

>a collection of
namespace math_double_constants
{
  const double pi = 31459;
}
(This is probably 98% of use, so a template solution is
cosmetically unacceptable).

in math_double_constants.hpp

3  A collection of long double constants

namespace math_constants
{
  const long double pi = 31459L;
}
<

Just a warning that this will generate ODR violations - each translation
unit will get it's own definition for pi - and so the linker will complain.
 You would need to move the constants into a cpp file for this kind of
usage.

I'm moving towards the function template approach:

namespace boost{

template <class T> T pi();
template<> long double pi<long double>();
// etc
long double pi() { return pi<long double>(); }

}

You can't avoid the function call approach with this, but otherwise it
looks to solve most of the problems - except partial specialisation - you
can't partially specialise pi for boost::interval<T> for example, whether
that is a problem though is another matter.

- John Maddock
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/john_maddock/