[boost] [Review] Boost.Endian by BEman Dawes starts today

Subject: [boost] [Review] Boost.Endian by BEman Dawes starts today
From: Joel Falcou (joel.falcou_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-09-05 11:28:30

According to the schedule, the review of the Boost.Endian library by 
Beman Dawes starts today.

===========
What is it?
===========

Boost.Endian provides facilities to manipulate the byte ordering of 
integers.

* The primary use case is binary I/O of integers for portable exchange
with other systems, via either file or network transmission.

* A secondary use case is to minimizing storage size via integers of
sizes and/or alignments not supported by the built-in types. Integers
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 bytes in length are supported.

* Two distinct approaches to byte ordering are provided. Each approach
has a long history of successful use, and each approach has use cases
where it is superior to the other approach.

* The explicit approach provides explicit functions to reorder bytes.
All four combinations of non-modifying or modifying, and unconditional
or conditional, functions are provided.

* The implicit approach provides integer classes that mimic the
built-in integers, implicitly handling all byte reordering.

===================
Getting the Library
===================

Docs are available at http://boost.cowic.de/rc/endian/doc/index.html
A zip file is available at http://boost.cowic.de/rc/endian/endian-rc1.zip
INSTALL instructions at  http://boost.cowic.de/rc/endian/INSTALL

Alternately, the whole library can be checked out of the sandbox:

      svn co http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/endian endian

================
Writing a Review
================

The reviews and all comments should be submitted to the developers list,
and the email should have "[Endian] 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.