RE: [boost] Quick comments on tuples

From: Gary Powell (Gary.Powell_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-06-18 11:12:24

Hi Daryle,
  Thanks for the review, comments follow.
 
  Yours,
 -gary-

[Daryle Walker]
This is from just a quick glance at the Tuples library under review.

1.  The header files have the authors' e-mail addresses as well as their
names.  Maybe the e-mails should be left out, so we don't have to change the
headers in cases the e-mails change.  The authors should eventually be
listed in the People section of the documentation, and they could put their
e-mail addresses there.
[Gary]
Ok, we'll pull the change log, (New boost requirements) and the email
address. I don't think Jaakko is in the list of contributors yet, but that's
a better place as you say for this sort of information.

[Daryle Walker]
2.  There's a type called "nil" for a placeholder for unused positions.
This is confusing from the usage as a NULL pointer that the last reviewed
library had.  The name should be more descriptive.  Worse, the name "nil" is
a macro constant in at least one OS-provider's system headers.
[Gary]
I've been following the function::nil issues and would like to use a
boost::nil/null (whatever) as a replacement for tuples::nil. Tuples just
need a unique type, no value or conversion operators are necessary. And
there is no point in having a function::null and a tuples::null.

Thanks again, and I would have modified the tuples submission but no firm
resolution on function::nil is out yet.