Re: [boost] Dynamic Bitset Formal Review June 8-17

From: Jaakko Jarvi (jajarvi_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-06-17 17:24:12

A review period can sometimes turn a library that solves certain 
well-defined 
problem, into a library which doesn't solve a bunch of other problems.

Dynamic_bitset doesn't solve the vector<bool> issue etc. but it 
is a useful library with a well-defined scope.

I'd like to see dynamic_bitset accepted to Boost. 

At this point of the review, there's not much new to say, but here's a few
comments anyway:

- If dynamic_bitset is used to represent subsets, I can see the need for 
being able do some kind of iteration, get the next member etc.
(Such functionality can be added to the library later.)

- An issue worth considering is the semantics of the input streaming 
operator. Now it it is defined to read up to size() elements, or until the 
first character that is not 0 or 1. I'd like to make the operator read all 
the way until something that is not 0 or 1 and grow the dynamic_bitset 
if necessary. It is dynamic, right?
One often knows what the size of a dynamic_bitset needs to be (you know 
from which set the subsets represented are drawn from), but I can imagine 
cases where one does not really care. 

- dyn_bitset::block_size is under Member Typedefs in the documentation,
though it is an enum.

My comments are based on reading the docs and skimming through the code.

Jaakko

-- 
--
-- Jaakko Järvi                       email: jajarvi_at_[hidden]
-- Post Doctoral Fellow               phone: [phone]
-- Pervasive Technology Labs          fax:   [phone]
-- Indiana University, Bloomington