[boost] Re: [program_options] printing the variable map

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-08-05 11:58:41

Jeff Garland <jeff <at> crystalclearsoftware.com> writes:

> 
> I'm writing a program with program_options (very cool and useful library, BTW)
> and I found myself wanting to print out the variable_map values for debugging
> purposes.  Is there an easy way to do this?

No, not at this moment. The first problem is that variables_map is 
a wrapper over std::map<string, boost::any>, and you can't print boost::any, 
unless you know for sure it's some specific type. So, we need some dynamic_any,
and I'm not sure if that library is being pushed into Boost.

Second problem is that not all option types are printable, for example
std::vector<string> is not. So, some method of detecting printability is
needed.

A similiar problem has arisen some time ago. The variable_value::as method used
to resort to lexical_cast, if the stored type was not equal to the requested 
one. This, however, required that all types you put in variables_map could
be created from string -- which is a drastic requirement.

> 
> Also couple of documentation nits:
> 1) From the first example....
> 
>  if (vm.count("help")) {
>       std::cout << desc << "\n";
> 
> I had to read the code to figure out that variable_map inherits from std::map,
> and this is why you can call this.  Documentation only says:
> 
>  class variables_map
>   :  : public boost::program_options::abstract_variables_map

Noted.

> 2) In the 'Storage Component' section -- there's this:
> 
>  Let's consider an example: 
> 
>         variables_map vm;
>         store(parse_command_line(argc, argv, desc), vm);
>         store(parse_config_file("example.cfg", desc), vm);
>         finish(vm);
>  ....     
>  Finally the call to notify function runs user-specified notify 
>  functions and stores values into regular variables, if needed. 
> 
> I assume 'finish' is supposed to be notify?  I don't see any docs for finish.

Yes, the 'notify' is the new spelling. Hmm.. I think I've fixed that doc
typo before leaving on vacation.

- Volodya