[boost] [Review:Contract]

Subject: [boost] [Review:Contract]
From: Roland Bock (rbock_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-09-02 05:28:18

Hi,

first of all, YES, the library should be included in BOOST, in my opinion.

In addition:

* What is your evaluation of the design? 
Very cool. Looks like a 1:1 translations from some good algorithm books into code :-)

* What is your evaluation of the implementation? 
I spent some time browsing through the macro code hoping it would help me to solve a problem of my own which looked similar (turned out it wasn't). Never being a fan of too much macro code, I have to say that this is very nicely written!

My only concerns:
- It seems to me that the implementation is spread over 
  more files than necessary. It made following the call stack 
  a bit tiresome.
- I a bit torn between 
  a) Steven's comment who would like to see CONTRACT_OLDOF 
     being replaced by the would-be keyword in a possible 
     future standard
  b) boost macros being clearly visible as such, leaving
     translation to future standard keywords to the user 
     of the library, e.g.
     #define foreach BOOST_FOREACH

  I tend towards b).

* What is your evaluation of the documentation? 
Excellent!

* What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library? 
It is a very good proof of concept and hopefully the basis for continued discussions about including contracts into the C++ language.

Due to a lack of formal contracts in much of day to day programming and the enormous compile time overhead, I don't see the library being used all over the place anytime soon, but I expect it to be used in generic algorithms, helping both developers and library users.

* Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems?
Sadly: No. Did not find the time.

* How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study?
I spent a few hours with the code, maybe two hours with the documentation and I followed some of the discussions during the review period.

* Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain? 
I would not call myself an expert, but I know enough to say: I'd really like to have Boost.Contract available the next time I write a mission-critical function/class/library!

Best regards,

Roland

PS: Sorry for being late. I'm hoping for lenience since the review period was announced a bit late as well :-)