Re: [boost] Re: Boost Iterable Range Library update (v1.5)

From: John Torjo (john.lists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-09 04:52:17

Hi Robert,

> This is a subject in which I've had some interest. In my case this resulted
> in the "dataflow iterator" part of the serialization library.  I've just
> looked at the documention referred to below rather than the code.  Still, I
> have some questions:
> 
> Its not clear to me what the benefit of using ranges is compared to a pair
> of iterators.
> 

Manual loops:

for ( crange<some_array_type> r(some_array); r; ++r)
      do_something( *r, some_data);

Also, while coding, sometimes I have more complex loos, in which case I 
need to decrement r, etc.

> 
> 
>>It makes dealing with containers/STL algorithms simpler by using ranges
>>(as opposed to iterators).
> 
> 
>>for ( crange<some_array_type> r(some_array); r; ++r)
>>     do_something( *r, some_data);
> 
> 
> How is this simpler or more transparent than
> 
> for(some_array::iterator i=some_array.begin(); i != some_array.end(); ++i)
>       do_something( *i, some_data);
> 

more compact, and not error prone.
Also, very useful in combination with algorithms that return ranges.

> 
>>Also, the library provides wrappers for all STL algorithms (for the
>>purpose of STL algorithms, all containers are ranges as well):
>>
>>typedef std::vector<std::string> word_array;
>>word_array v;
>>// STL version
>>std::copy( v.begin(), v.end(), print);
>>// rng:: version
>>rng::copy( v, print);
> 
> 
> I don't see this as adding any value or conceptual transparency.

Not sure I understand what you mean.

> 
> 
>>Also, the counterparts for STL algorithms that return an iterator will
>>return a range, allowing for:
>>// fill a vector with all the indexes at which a certain string is found
>>std::string str = "I'm a cool programmer, really cool that is", find =
>>"cool";
>>std::vector<int> result;
>>crange<std::string> r(str);
>>while ( r = rng::search(r, find))
>>     result.push_back ( r.begin() - str.begin() );
> 
> 
> I'm not really sure that I understand this example.  It would seem the
> standard stl equivalent would be
> 
> std::vector<int> result;
> std::string str = "I'm a cool programmer, really cool that is";
> std::string find =  "cool";
> 
> std::string::const_iterator r = str.begin();
> while(r = stl::search(r, find.begin(), find.end()))
>     result.push_back ( r.begin() - str.begin() );
> 
> which to my mind isn't any different or more complex.

in fact, you forgot to compare r to str.end()

>>
>>// take all employees from Romania, and print their names
>>rng::copy( transformed( filtered(empls,from_ro), get_empl_name),
>>     std::ostream_iterator<std::string>(std::cout," "));
>>
> 
> 
> I don't see how this is better than using iterator adaptors for composition.

Please, try the above with iterator adaptors, and show me the code.

Best,
John

-- 
John Torjo,    Contributing editor, C/C++ Users Journal
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