[boost] [graph] bellman_ford_shortest_paths interface

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-06 08:57:51

Hi,
after trying to use the bellman_ford_shortest_paths I think it's a little bit 
strange. First of all, user is required to initialise distance map before 
calling the algorithm. The distance to the source vertex must be set to zero 
and distances to other vertices to infinity. Why can't the algorithm accept a 
source vertex as parameter and do initialisation itself? Dijsktra surely does 
not require such initialization.

Another problem is that number of vertices is passed as parameter. I realize 
this is more flexible (for example I can compute the maximum length of all 
paths with less than N edges), but it's also confusing and dangerous. I've 
just passed a wrong variable to that parameter and spend quite some time 
debugging.

Is it possible to provide a version of the algorithm which 
(1) takes just graph, without vertex number parameter
(2) takes start vertex, and initialises distance map itself

- Volodya