Re: [boost] Review Request: Creasing (Sequence Properties)

Subject: Re: [boost] Review Request: Creasing (Sequence Properties)
From: Stewart, Robert (Robert.Stewart_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-01-27 14:35:22

Simonson, Lucanus J wrote:
> Joachim Faulhaber wrote:
> > 2010/1/24 Grant Erickson <gerickson_at_[hidden]>:
> >
> >> The creasing algorithm templates define four template functions for
> >> determining the order properties of sequences, specifically:
> >>
> >>    * Increasing
> >>    * Decreasing
> >>    * Strictly Increasing
> >>    * Strictly Decreasing
> >
> > I'd suggest to implement only the latter. This would make your
> > extension both more minimal and more general.
>
> I'm a little confused why there is such a narrow focus on
> ordering relationships here.  What seems to be the most

Why is it confusing?  The OP focused the thread and no one generalized it beyond the is_ordered idea.

> general solution to this is a generic range adaptor that
> given a range over elements of type T returns an adapted
> range over pairs of elements of type T that are adjacent to
> eachother in the input range.  I'm constantly writing such
> adaptors to convert polygon vertices to polygon edges as
> pairs of vertices.  Combine that with a foreach or just a
> while loop and you can apply the predicate.  We can

You say that like there's no code involved.

> generalize the adjacent-pair-range-adaptor seperately from
> the foreach-element-in-a-range-apply-functor algorithm.

OK.  Doing that doesn't preclude handy tools like is_ordered, however.

> As it happens we
> have boost libraries that provide a basis for each of these
> generally useful constructs.  It seems a little pointless to
> propose a library to combine them to solve a very specific
> problem.  Nobody is at a loss as to how to code up something
> to figure out whether elements in an iterator range are
> sorted, and nobody would or even should look in boost for
> such a simple thing.

If you say so.  I don't happen to agree.  Unless one does such a thing with any regularity, one must find a recipe or reinvent it again each time.  Your statement seems rather like suggesting that std::for_each shouldn't be in the Standard Library because "nobody is at a loss as to how to code up something" to do such a loop.

> Did the author skip the determining
> interest step and ask for a review prematurely, or am I
> missing something about the proposed library?

Any time a library can provide a useful, robust, *named* solution to a common problem, it seems worthwhile.  As could be seen from this thread, using std::adjacent_find was not immediately obvious, so there is room to write less than optimal solutions, making a Boost library solution helpful.  Furthermore, if there are any compiler-specific quirks that should arise, the library can account for those and user code need not do so.

Have I missed something in your concern?  Do you still disagree with including such tools in Boost, possibly in addition to your generalization?

_____
Rob Stewart                           robert.stewart_at_[hidden]
Software Engineer, Core Software      using std::disclaimer;
Susquehanna International Group, LLP  http://www.sig.com

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