[boost] [Review] Boost.Convert library, new subversion URL

Subject: [boost] [Review] Boost.Convert library, new subversion URL
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-04-23 10:23:37

This is a reminder that formal review of the Boost.Convert library by 
Vladimir Batov starts today, April 23, and is scheduled to last through 
May 2.

***************
* Its Purpose *
***************

The library builds on the past boost::lexical_cast experience, then
takes those conversion-related ideas further to suit better today's
applications and programing needs. It still offers simple, minimal
interface, familiar conversion behavior and additionally provides:

*    throwing and non-throwing conversion-failure behavior;
*    support for the default/fallback value to be returned when 
conversion fails;
*    two types of the conversion-failure check - basic/simple and 
better/safe;
*    formatting support based on the standard std::streams and
std::stream-based manipulators (like std::hex, std::scientific, etc.);
*    support for different locales;
*    support for boost::range-compliant char and wchar_t-based containers;
*    no DefaultConstructibility requirement for the Target/Destination type;
*    consistent framework to uniformly incorporate any type-to-type
conversions, extensibility and additional room to grow.

With its present support for string-to-type and type-to-string
conversions it is an essential tool for applications making extensive
use of configuration or MS-Windows-Registry-style files or having to
process/prepare considerable amounts of data in, say, XML, etc. More
so, it is easily extendable to accommodate, specialize and uniformly
deploy new user-defined type-to-type conversions.

*******************
* Where to get it *
*******************

Normally you can find Boost.Convert here:

http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=boost-string-convert.zip

However because the boostpro web site is having problems and will likely 
be down for the weekend, I have put the library into the Boost sandbox 
temporarily, since the Boost sandbox is up. So you can get the library, 
using Subversion, from https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/convert. 
This is exactly the same as the vault with the files unzipped.

The HTML documentation is part of the distribution and can be found at 
libs/convert/index.html in the distribution above.

********************
* Writing a review *
********************

The reviews and all comments should be submitted to the developers list,
and the email should have "[convert] Review" at the beginning of the 
subject line to make sure it's not missed.

Please explicitly state in your review whether the library should be
accepted.

The general review checklist:

     - What is your evaluation of the design?
     - What is your evaluation of the implementation?
     - What is your evaluation of the documentation?
     - What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the
       library?
     - Did you try to use the library?  With what compiler?  Did you
       have any problems?
     - How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A
       quick reading? In-depth study?
     - Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain?

And finally, every review should answer this question:

     - Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library?

Be sure to say this explicitly so that your other comments don't
obscure your overall opinion.

Edward Diener,
Review Manager