Re: [boost] [Boost Review] Property tree review

From: Marcin Kalicinski (kalita_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-04-30 07:42:57

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for your comments.

> The proposed property tree library uses a small internal language which is
> passed to the various functions, for instance:
>
> file = ptree.get<std::string>("config.filename");
>
> Personally, I don't think its a good idea to define new syntaxes and pass
> them around as strings. It would be a bit more effort to implement, but I
> think (something like) the following would be preferable:
>
> file = ptree.get<std::string>["config"]["filename"]

I think both approaches have their merits. For example, the above would not
permit storing paths in strings or files. I intend to allow both:

// These will be equivalent
file = pt.["config"]["filename"].get<std::string>();    // #1
file = pt.["config.filename"].get<std::string>();     // #2

> Also, there is an additional runtime overhead in parsing the string, which
> can be avoided by doing it at compile-time using C++'s native syntax.

If performance is important, user will just use #1 syntax.

Best regards,
Marcin