Re: [boost] Boost.Tests: Unit test defines own main() function, why?

From: Dean Michael Berris (mikhailberis_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-12-22 23:22:55

Hi Jens,

This is in response to one of your points in this conversation:

On Dec 21, 2007 9:23 PM, Jens Seidel <jensseidel_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 02:27:31AM -0500, Gennadiy Rozental wrote:
> > Yes, the version on boost.org is very old. Docs writting take as much time
> > (if not more) as actual development.
>
> I fully agree. But why not using the best of both? Remove outdated
> pages on www.boost.org with your new docu *now*. Why do you wait?
>

The reason is because the version in www.boost.org pertains to
documentation for the latest release of the code -- which is 1.34.1.
If you're looking at and/or using the Boost.Test version in Trunk,
then you should be able to generate the documentation from the
distribution you've downloaded.

Now, if you're saying that 1.34.1's documentation is not consistent
with the released version, then perhaps it would be more productive if
you look at how the Boost C++ Library does its development and release
process -- then submit patches slated for 1.35. It's not like we just
update a Wiki page and it pertains to the current stable version as
far as documentation goes.

> > > Again: Why are
> > > static and shared libraries handled differently? It shouldn't matter!
> >
> > It does on windows.
>
> But it does not have to differ! Most Open Source code from Linux can be
> compiled on Windows as well. Do you think part of the porting is to
> change interfaces just for fun? It is not necessary!
>

It differs because Windows treats DLL's differently from how Linux
deals with shared object files (.so's).

Boost.Test uses macro's to hide the details you otherwise have to
worry about on a per platform basis -- like how do you load DLL's, and
how do you leverage autolinking in Windows. Much of this stuff you
don't have to worry about in Linux especially if you've got Linux
specific constructs in your main(), but that makes your code
non-platform specific.

I hope this helps.

-- 
Dean Michael C. Berris
Software Engineer, Friendster, Inc.
[http://cplusplus-soup.blogspot.com/]
[mikhailberis_at_[hidden]]
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