RE: [boost] Boost.Assert

From: Stewart, Robert (stewart_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-11-12 15:16:05

> From: Peter Dimov [mailto:pdimov_at_[hidden]]
> 
> You have three options of wiring up assertions to be reported 
> to the end
> user.
> 
> 1. Leave BOOST_ASSERT to assert(). ('return true' from boost_error or
> use -DBOOST_ASSERT=assert.)
> 2. Provide your own BOOST_ASSERT.
> 3. Report the error to the user from boost_error.
> 
> (1) will automatically take advantage of __func__, (2) is 
> fine as well. It's
> only (3) that doesn't receive the function name.
> 
> The scenarios that I had in mind for overriding boost_error 
> were throwing an
> exception (presumably to be handled by a higher level 
> component), logging
> the error to a file, or performing cleanup before 
> assert()ing. None of these
> really needs the function name, although it can't hurt.

Why not use a set_terminate_handler-like interface for setting the
boost_error-like function?  If that works for the standard, why not for
Boost?  I suppose that you're worried that the function pointer might not be
initialized to the address of boost_error when called from some static
object's initialization.  If you initialize the pointer to zero, and use
that as a special case that calls boost_error, then there should be no
problem (other than that the library user may have wanted to have their own
replacement called at a point when their "set handler" logic hasn't run.

> If we do add a 'const char * func' parameter to boost_error, 
> the problems
> are (1) how do we detect __func__ (#ifdef __func__ is no 
> good) and (2) what
> do we pass for 'func' when __func__ is not supported.

config.hpp could define "__func__" to be a null pointer for compilers that
don't support __func__.  Then, boost_error() must be written to expect a
null pointer for the function name parameter. 

Rob
Susquehanna International Group, LLP
http://www.sig.com

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