Several useful utility classes uploaded

From: brianjparker_at_[hidden]
Date: 2001-10-20 01:53:53

Hi Boosters,

I have just uploaded in file "boost_ext_20_10_2001.zip" a few classes 
and functions which I have found useful and which don't appear to 
have equivalents in the Boost library. They are fully documented (see 
index.htm) but here is a brief overview-

alignment_traits class which is used to align stack-based or static 
memory

stack_allocator: a fast allocator adaptor for small contiguous-memory 
(vector-like) data structures. It stores the initial allocation in a 
stack-based per-object buffer and so avoids the overhead of dynamic 
memory allocation for small vectors or strings.

hinted_node_allocator: this allocator is optimized for allocating 
large numbers of small fixed-sized nodes and so is ideal for node-
based data structures such as std::list, slist, boost::f_heap 

valunion: a discriminated union class- this type is essentially a 
wrapper for the low-level C "union" compound type.

tuple: my version of the ubiquitous tuple abstraction. This is 
superceded by boost::tuple but I have posted it here anyway as it 
demonstrates some interesting features, esp. named members, that may 
be worth adding to boost::tuple.

convert_traits: essentially a limited form of typeof() that is useful 
for implementing conversions in the common case of template functions 
that assume a simple signature of TxT->T 

compact(): frees unused reserved memory from std::vector and 
std::string.

min() and max(): these are distinguished from the std::min and 
std::max as the lhs and rhs can be different, convertible types

to_string(): A simple function to convert any type to its string 
representation. Its functionality is subsumed by boost::lexical_cast, 
but I think this function would still be useful as a simpler synonym 
for lexical_cast.

ct_dispatch: This is simply a compile-time integral dispatch class 
based on the int2type<> class in Andrei Alexandrescu. CUJ Sept 2000 
and the "dummy" class in Austern "Generic programming and the STL".

pd_debug.hpp: a platform independent debug library. The main 
advantage is that it can output debug and performance messages in a 
release build

f_heap.hpp: various bug fixes and interface changes to the Boost 
Fibonacci heap class

Most of these could be just added to existing boost headers if found 
to be useful- I have indicated the most suitable headers in 
index.html.

Cheers,
Brian Parker