Re: Review Results: Base-from-Member

From: Daryle Walker (darylew_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-08-15 18:25:54

on 8/14/01 4:28 PM, Beman Dawes at bdawes_at_[hidden] wrote:

> Daryle Walker's Base-from-Member library is accepted by Boost subject to
> two caveats:

OK.

> * Issues raised during the review be addressed, particularly Ed Brey's
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/message/15406.  (Note that Daryle has
> already dealt with some issues in an update in the files section.)

I think I covered every issue.  Do you have any specific concerns?

> * The documentation needs to be modified to more clearly indicate that for
> some applications the best use of the library is not to #include the code
> directly, but to use it as a demonstration of how to hand-code the
> base-from-member idiom.

When can't the code be used directly (besides compiler problems, constructor
cases we don't cover, and the limitations of C++ syntax)?

> This last point is the key issue with Base-from-Member; some users will
> wish to view the library as a demonstration of the idiom or technique
> rather than as code they will always reuse.
> 
> This seems to me to require some explanation.  Some of the points are
> specific to Base-from-Member, such as "When is it better to hand code?",
> and so should be dealt with in the Base-from-Member docs.

Should this be done soon?  When is the next release, anyway?  (We've have
had three formal reviews, including the current Bind, since that last
release.  We also have the results of the Tuples and Pre-processing reviews
outstanding from before the last release.)

> But it also seems to me that Boost should have a page titled something like
> "Demonstration Libraries" which Base-from-Member and similar libraries can
> link to.  It would describe the concept that we reuse code when there is a
> good library code solution, but other times there is no applicable specific
> code, so instead we reuse code idioms and techniques (for small-scale
> problems), or we reuse design patterns (for large-scale problems).  Links
> to non-boost resources might also be appropriate.

This is separate from cleaning up Base-from-Member, right?

> Comments?

-- 
Daryle Walker
Mac, Internet, and Video Game Junkie
darylew AT mac DOT com