Re: [boost] [endian] swap_in_place use case

Subject: Re: [boost] [endian] swap_in_place use case
From: Tomas Puverle (tomas.puverle_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-06-04 14:08:01

> If you're only going to access each element of the file, then converting 
> endian on access should be faster than swapping in place and then 
> processing, without needing double the memory.
> Could you please give a specific example (preferably with code) that I could 
> play with?

Terry,

I was under the impression I already provided you with a use case in an earlier
thread.

Converting to endian on access certainly won't be faster than swap_in_place, as
you cannot have a "zero cost" version.  Additionally, in our scenarios the data
gets accessed multiple times.

But just to re-iterate:
1) swap_in_place<>() can be zero cost in the case of no swapping, which cannot
be said for the copying approach.  I.e. it has a much better best case behaviour
and the same cost for the worst case behaviour.
2) It is one of the safer ways of handling floating point numbers.

Tom