Re: [boost] asio formal review begins

From: Victor A. Wagner Jr. (vawjr_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-12-10 13:56:41

At 20:08 2005-12-09, Jeff Garland wrote:
>All -
>
>Today (Dec 10th) is the start of the format review of the Asynchronous
>I/O library (asio) library by Christopher Kohlhoff. The review will run
>until Friday December 23rd.

I think we _could_ have picked a worse time to have a review if we'd 
only tried a little harder.  How about delaying it a week and 
_really_ hitting the holidays... le't's see, we could close the 
formal review at the end of the Rose Bowl game just for pizazz.

Sorry guys, I think this is one of the worst times to try to get 
volunteers to do anything, let alone a serious job of reviewing a new 
library.  IMO, it doesn't matter if the library is perfect, there are 
enough of us< who understand the problems thoroughly, who just won't 
be able to cobble together the time to do an honest review.

So, given that I can't review it, I'll vote NO now (I can't vote YES 
on anything I haven't read (in stark contrast to the entire House of 
Representatives in the U.S. Congress)).

I do appeal to delay the actual review until AFTER New Years Day.

>   I will be serving as review manager.
>
>  From the library synopsis:
>
>Boost.Asio is a cross-platform C++ library for network programming that
>provides developers with a consistent asynchronous I/O model using a
>modern C++ approach.
>
>Downloads of the library as well as online documentation can be found at:
>
>http://asio.sourceforge.net/      (please refresh the page if you don't
>see "Boost Review Material" at the top)
>http://asio.sourceforge.net/boost-asio-proposal-0.3.6/libs/asio/doc/
>
>As usual, please state in review comments how you reviewed the library
>and whether the you think the library should be accepted into Boost.
>Further guidelines for writing reviews can be found on the website at:
>
>http://www.boost.org/more/formal_review_process.htm#Comments
>
>Please review early and often!
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jeff
>
>
>
>*******************************************************
>A Few Library Details:
>*******************************************************
>Supported Platforms
>
>The following platforms and compilers have been tested:
>
>     * Win32 using Visual C++ 7.1 and Visual C++ 8.0.
>     * Win32 using Borland C++Builder 6 patch 4.
>     * Win32 using MinGW.
>     * Linux (2.4 or 2.6 kernels) using g++ 3.3 or later.
>     * Solaris using g++ 3.3 or later.
>     * Mac OS X 10.4 using g++ 3.3 or later.
>
>Rationale
>
>The Boost.Asio library is intended for programmers using C++ for systems
>programming, where access to operating system functionality such as
>networking is often required. In particular, Boost.Asio attempts to
>address the following goals:
>
>     * Portability. The library should support, and provide consistent
>behaviour across, a range of commonly used operating systems.
>     * Scalability. The library should allow, and indeed encourage, the
>development of network applications that scale to hundreds or thousands
>of concurrent connections. The library implementation for each operating
>system should use the mechanism that best enables this scalability.
>     * Efficiency. The library should support techniques such as
>scatter-gather I/O, and allow protocol implementations that minimise
>data copying.
>     * Model Berkeley sockets. The Berkeley sockets API is widely
>implemented and understood, as well as being covered in much literature.
>Other programming languages often use a similar interface for networking
>APIs.
>     * Ease of use. Lower the entry barrier for new users by taking a
>toolkit, rather than framework, approach. That is, try to minimise the
>up-front investment in time to just learning a few basic rules and
>guidelines. After that, a library user should only need to understand
>the specific functions that are being used.
>     * Basis for further abstraction. The library should permit the
>development of other libraries that provide higher levels of
>abstraction. For example, implementations of commonly used protocols
>such as HTTP.
>
>Although the current incarnation of Boost.Asio focuses primarily on
>networking, its concepts of asynchronous I/O can be extended to include
>other operating system resources such as files.
>
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Victor A. Wagner Jr.      http://rudbek.com
The five most dangerous words in the English language:
               "There oughta be a law"