Re: [boost] [xint] Third release is ready, requesting preliminary review

Subject: Re: [boost] [xint] Third release is ready, requesting preliminary review
From: vicente.botet (vicente.botet_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-05-01 11:27:48

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chad Nelson" <chad.thecomfychair_at_[hidden]>
To: <boost_at_[hidden]>
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [boost] [xint] Third release is ready, requesting preliminary review

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> On 05/01/2010 03:32 AM, Marius wrote:
> 
>>>> I'm happy to announce that the third release of the Extended Integer
>>>> library is ready, in both the sandbox and the Vault. [...]
>> 
>> Hi, i must say that i'm a bit concerned about making thread safety a 
>> compile time option especially considering that on unix systems you
>> don't ussually compile the library and ship it with your program.
> 
> I see your point, but I don't consider that a major problem. Most people
> using the library won't need thread-safe operation; the ones that do can
> compile it themselves with little effort.
> 
>> And if all the libraries in boost will have compile time options like
>> that it will quickly become unmanageable for distributions.
> 
> That's hardly a problem, since "all the libraries in boost" *don't* have
> that kind of compile-time option. Though several of them already do...
> just off the top of my head, Boost.Regex requires a compile-time option
> to support Unicode characters, and I seem to recall several others.
> 
>> I would suggest that you either make thread safe the default compile 
>> behaviour
> 
> That's not really an option, for two reasons: thread-safe behavior is
> markedly slower, and it has dependencies on Boost.Move (which isn't yet
> an official Boost library) and Boost.Thread (which, as a compiled
> library itself, requires linking). The single-thread version is much
> faster and doesn't require either of those.
> 
>> or offer both safe and unsafe classes.
> 
> Certainly possible, though it would complicate the library.

Couldn't you add a template parameter stating the thread model? This parameter can be by default single_threaded, and the user can set it also to multi_threaded. In this way you let the user of each xint::integer to decide if the library must ensure thread safety or not.

Best,
Vicente