[boost] [Review][PQS] Review from Bill Myers

From: fred bertsch (fred.bertsch_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-06-06 16:08:18

With Bill's permission, I'm forwarding his review to the list.

-Fred

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bill Myers <wlmyers at stellarscience dot com>
Date: Jun 6, 2006 10:14 AM
Subject: Review of Andy Little's Physical Quantities System
To: fred.bertsch_at_[hidden]
Cc: Andy Little <andy_at_[hidden]>

== Summary: recommend accept. Please! :-)

== Design:

My perspective is a component user; I have little expertise in
constructing boost-level-of-sophistication components. The user API
is fine.

== Implementation:

I've compiled and run all the pqs example programs. They compile with
no warnings and execute correctly.

I've added a user-defined t1_quantity, fluence. I did this before
documentation was available; Andy was cheerfully helpful in walking
me through the steps, but it's daunting for the casual user (as Andy
notes in the documentation).

== Documentation:

The PDF version of the document has considerable content, with a few
editorial issues (typography, spelling, and such). I spent a couple
of hours reading through all of it; I found it no more dense than
existing boost component documentation, and certainly more up-to-date
than some of them (unit test).

== Usefulness:

PQS fills a critical need for which there is no alternative C++
solution. Even though some may regard the present implementation as
incomplete (Andy himself notes important TODOs), I believe that it is
very useful as it now stands, and I need a "stamp of approval" so
that I can begin introducing it into our scientific analysis projects.

== Background:

My platform is Apple (gcc 4.0.1, Mac OS X 10.4.6). I'm using boost
1_33_1 obtained via darwinports. My coworkers are pretty much all on
WindowsXP with VisualStudio -- anything I create has to work on that
platform; they are also using boost 1_33_1. I've been experimenting
with pqs since January 2005, although none of our code can depend on
pqs until it becomes a formal boost library.

Bill Myers