Re: [boost] Re: Re: [Formal review] Singleton library

From: Dan Rosen (dan.rosen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-13 13:32:46

Jason,

I think my primary point may have gotten lost in the length of my
original post. I want to emphasize that I think you need to focus on
the concepts (in the STL sense of the word). At a minimum, I'd like to
see a relatively complete description of the semantics for each method
in every interface. I'm sure you've seen this already, but the SGI
docs:

  http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl

are a good example of what I'm looking for. For a more granularly
policy-ized example (akin to Singleton), the Boost Threads docs are
also a decent style guide, I think. If you can articulate the concepts
you're representing clearly, I think the process of solidifying the
library for submission will be much more straightforward and smoother
for you.

Also, regarding your direct question about the usefulness of Singleton
in its present state: for me, the question is "would I download this
regardless of whether or not it was in Boost?" I believe it is
presently useful, but not as useful as it could be if you got the
concepts solid (and, since the interfaces are changing, not yet stable
enough either). In my mind, multiton is the primary example of this.
If you had that solid, I'd definitely see myself downloading and using
Singleton regardless of its acceptance into Boost.

Best,
dr

On 5/12/05, Jason Hise <chaos_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> Does anyone have any additional comments about the singleton?
> So far the major items on my TODO list include:
> 
> * Provide a built in policy which actually locks using boost.thread's
> mutexes
> * Use declspec for windows builds to make dlls work with singletons
> naturally
> * Make the multiton fit the requirements for a pair associative container.
> * Fix boolean conversion for pointers
> * A lot more example code in the docs
> 
> Is there anything else that anyone feels is missing from the singleton
> library?  Even if you don't have anything new to mention, I would
> appreciate hearing whether or not you think the singleton is useful in
> its current state.  It will help the review manager a great deal in
> making his decision if more people cast their votes.
> 
> -Jason