Re: [boost] [shifted_ptr] STL support: 99%

From: Phil Bouchard (philippe_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-08-06 05:50:38

"Gordon Woodhull" <gordon_at_[hidden]> wrote in message 
news:56F3BD3B-DAC3-43B1-96F5-4BB4A3919B10_at_woodhull.com...

[...]

> But to get there wouldn't you need to change the public interface of 
> set/map?  Right now it won't even admit it's holding a tree.  Wouldn't 
> you have to teach it how to reuse nodes rather than creating new  ones?  I 
> also think there might be overlap issues between an inserted  tree and its 
> new siblings.  For list, you *might* be able to keep the  same interface, 
> but the invariants would be much stranger if one list  could modify 
> another.

Well if we could have external access to the nodes themselves we could do a 
lot.  I think this should be a task delegated to iterators.  I do not wish 
to elaborate to much at this time because it is late and I would like 
demonstrating another useful example.

The following doesn't work yet and I found another bug I need to correct but 
the idea is relatively easy to get.  Here's an example on how we could write 
a "human brain kernel", which is all it basically really is:
https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/shifted_ptr/libs/smart_ptr/example/regex_test1.cpp

> In sum, I'm very interested in these data structures, I just wonder if 
> they might be better served by new classes rather than modifications  to 
> STL.  Your original application in garbage collection seems valid  to me, 
> although I am no allocator expert.

Everybody has their own preferences but personnaly I do not have strong 
beliefs in new classes.  Functional programming is a very powerful option 
and nesting up these containers would be very extendible I think.  But this 
should be up to the programmer to see his options.

Thanks,
-Phil