Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: Boost.Contract

Subject: Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: Boost.Contract
From: Lorenzo Caminiti (lorcaminiti_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-06-17 18:20:53

On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 4:21 PM, Ronald Garcia <rxg_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> I have received your request and have added Contract to the review schedule.

Review wizards, Dave Abrahams indicated he can be the review manager
for Boost.Contract and we agreed on dates 8/22-31 for the review if
that works with Boost.

Can you please update the review schedule accordingly?

Thank you.
--Lorenzo

> On Jun 4, 2012, at 1:37 PM, Lorenzo Caminiti wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I have released Contract++ 0.4.0 on SourceForge. If ever accepted into
>> Boost, this library will be Boost.Contract (and all macros/symbols
>> will be prefixed by BOOST_/boost::).
>>
>> This library implements Contract Programming for the C++ programming
>> language (see the end of this email). In addition, the library
>> implements virtual specifiers (final, override, and new, see C++11),
>> concept checking, and named parameters.
>> This library is implemented for the C++03 standard and it does not
>> require C++11.
>>
>> Documentation:
>> http://contractpp.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/contractpp/releases/contractpp_0_4_0/doc/html/index.html
>>
>> Source:
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/contractpp/files/latest/download
>>
>> I would like to request a formal Boost review of the library.
>>
>> Comments are welcome!
>>
>> Thanks,
>> --Lorenzo
>>
>> INTRODUCTION
>>
>> Contract Programming is also known as Design by Contract(TM) and it
>> was first introduced by the Eiffel programming language. All Contract
>> Programming features of the Eiffel programming language are supported
>> by this library, among others:
>>
>> * Support for preconditions, postconditions, class invariants, block
>> invariants, and loop variants.
>> * Subcontract derived classes (with support for pure virtual functions
>> and multiple inheritance).
>> * Access expression old values and function return value in postconditions.
>> * Optional compilation and checking of preconditions, postconditions,
>> class invariants, block invariants, and loop variants.
>> * Customizable actions on contract assertion failure (terminate by
>> default but it can throw, exit, etc).
>>
>> All features:
>> http://contractpp.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/contractpp/releases/contractpp_0_4_0/doc/html/contract__/contract_programming_overview.html#contract__.contract_programming_overview.features
>>
>> EXAMPLE
>>
>> The example below shows how to use this library to program contracts
>> for the STL member function std::vector::push_back (in order to
>> illustrate subcontracting, the vector class inherits from the somewhat
>> arbitrary pushable base class).
>>
>> #include <contract.hpp> // This library.
>> #include <boost/concept_check.hpp>
>> #include <vector>
>> #include "pushable.hpp" // Some base class.
>>
>> CONTRACT_CLASS(
>>    template( typename T ) requires( boost::CopyConstructible<T> ) // Concepts.
>>    class (vector) extends( public pushable<T> ) // Subcontracting.
>> ) {
>>    CONTRACT_CLASS_INVARIANT_TPL(
>>        empty() == (size() == 0) // More class invariants here...
>>    )
>>
>>    public: typedef typename std::vector<T>::size_type size_type;
>>    public: typedef typename std::vector<T>::const_reference const_reference;
>>
>>    CONTRACT_FUNCTION_TPL(
>>        public void (push_back) ( (T const&) value ) override
>>            precondition(
>>                size() < max_size() // More preconditions here...
>>            )
>>            postcondition(
>>                auto old_size = CONTRACT_OLDOF size(), // Old-of values.
>>                size() == old_size + 1 // More postconditions here...
>>            )
>>    ) {
>>        vector_.push_back(value); // Original function body.
>>    }
>>
>>    // Rest of class here (possibly with more contracts)...
>>    public: bool empty ( void ) const { return vector_.empty(); }
>>    public: size_type size ( void ) const { return vector_.size(); }
>>    public: size_type max_size ( void ) const { return vector_.max_size(); }
>>    public: const_reference back ( void ) const { return vector_.back(); }
>>
>>    private: std::vector<T> vector_;
>> };
>>
>> NOTES
>>
>> This library suffers of two limitations:
>>
>> 1. The unusual syntax used to declare classes and functions within the
>> macros which causes cryptic compiler errors when not used correctly
>> (syntax error checking and reporting could be somewhat improved in
>> future revisions of the library but there are fundamental limitations
>> on what can be done using the preprocessor).
>> http://contractpp.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/contractpp/releases/contractpp_0_4_0/doc/html/contract__/grammar.html#syntax_error_warning_anchor
>>
>> 2. High compilation times (the authors have not tried to optimize the
>> library proprocessor and template meta-programming code yet, that will
>> be the focus of future releases).
>> http://contractpp.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/contractpp/releases/contractpp_0_4_0/doc/html/contract__/contract_programming_overview.html#compilation_time_warning_anchor
>>
>> This library could be extended to also support concept definitions (at
>> least for C++11):
>> http://contractpp.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/contractpp/releases/contractpp_0_4_0/doc/html/contract__/concepts.html#contract__.concepts.concept_definitions__not_implemented_