RE: [boost] Formal Review: Indexed Set

From: Paul A Bristow (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-03-23 08:03:12

*  What is your evaluation of the design?

Looks very useful for 'relational database-ish' tasks (especially if, as
is likely, it can be combined with the up-coming serialization
library.). 

*  What is your evaluation of the implementation?

Not examined, but examples and performance tests look fine.

Most compilers work, and all the important 'compilant' ones work without
any problems.

Extensive tests - also useful examples (I didn’t find a link from the
documentation which would be easy to provide and prevent people ignoring
tests as a source of many helpful examples).

Looks (and from version number and history, is) 'mature'.  

*  What is your evaluation of the documentation?

Nicely written and accessible tutorial with examples that cover some
useful application areas. Covers a wide range of compilers.  

(The word 'multiindex' doesn't look nice to me - would 'multi-index' be
better?)

* What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library?

Promises to extend the usefulness of STL containers significantly, with
hardly any run-time cost.

*  Did you try to use the library?

No use.

*  How much effort did you put into your evaluation?

 A long glance.

*  Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain?

Not seriously.
 
*  Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library? 

Yes.

Paul A Bristow
Prizet Farmhouse, Kendal, Cumbria UK LA8 8AB
[phone]  [phone]
mailto: pbristow_at_[hidden]

| -----Original Message-----
| From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden] 
| [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Pavel Vozenilek
| Sent: 19 March 2004 22:53
| To: boost_at_[hidden]
| Subject: [boost] Formal Review: Indexed Set
| 
| 
| The review of Indexed Set library, written by
| Joaquín M López Muñoz starts today (March 20)
| and runs for 10 days.
| 
| 
| Latest version (9.4) of the library is available on:
| http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/files/indexed_set.zip
| (328 kB)
| 
| 
| What it is?
|   indexed_set is generic, STL compliant container
|   providing one or more views on its data. These views
|   allow to use data sorted according to different criteria.
|   Change in container data is automatically
|   propagated into all views.
| 
|   How many views and what ordering is applied is
|   specified in declarative way, as template parameter.
| 
| 
| What it is good for?
|   - it can replace multiple collections of data and
|     hand-written code keeping them in sync.
|   - it can replace standard containers (as std::set or
|     std::list) if these may not meet future reqirements.
|   - it can serve as basic for other libraries.
|     For example RTL (relational tables library) may use
|     indexed_set to hold its data.
| 
| 
| Other features of indexed_set:
|   - sorting can be performed on result of member function
|     (similar to calculated indexes in RDBMS).
|   - indexed_set can be used as 'wrapper' over other data
|     structures, e.g you can see data in std::vector
|     as being sorted in set-like structure (but without
|     structures being synchronized).
|   - many, many others ...
| 
| 
| Future development:
|   - planned functionality is described on its own page
|     in documentation.
|   - indexed_set may also implement access to its data
|     in the same way as std::deque, with random O(1) access
| 
| 
| History of the project:
|   - it started as 'bimap' library more than year ago,
|   - some two dozen iterations were released,
|   - several Boost people expressed their interest
|     or did suggest features.
| 
| 
| Boost-wide reusable parts of the library:
|   - indexed_set includes (nearly verbatim) copy
|     of Andrei Alexandresu ScopeGuard. It is intended
|     as stop-gap until Boost wide library emerges.
|   - maybe auto_space.hpp can be liften into utilities.
| 
| 
| Portability:
|   - see document page for list of compilers and their issues
|   - Can someone try to run tests under release mode of VC 6.5?
|     We got different results with different machines.
| 
| 
| Word from the autor:
|   "Thank you for reviewing indexed_set. There are several
|   points, mostly concerning naming, that I'd like to be discussed
|   during the review. You can find these at the URL
| 
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/files/indexed_set_review_notes.html

  If you evaluate the library and deem it acceptable for
  Boost, please walk the extra mile and express your opinions
  about the issues brought forward in the review notes.
  Naming issues are quite sensitive, and I'd like to reach
  as general a consensus as possible."

Your review comments are welcomed. Found problems
and suggestions for documentation are highly
sought. Requests for new features requests may
shape way indexed_set will evolve in future.

As naming questions can generate lot of mail-list traffic,
I'll start separate thread to deal with them.

/Pavel

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