[boost] Query of interest for a container output library

Subject: [boost] Query of interest for a container output library
From: meta221 (talzion12_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-01-30 09:45:00

Hello,
lately I've been working on a library that can output different kinds of
containers to standard output streams. 
The library is currently completely generic and can output any object that
models the input range concept or Boost.Fusion's sequence concept. 
It doesn't restrict itself to std containers. If an object looks like a
sequence, then it is a sequence in the eyes of the library.

The library uses different open and close characters for different kinds of
containers.
For example the output of the following:
std::cout << std::vector<int> {1,2,3} << '\n';
std::cout << std::set<int> {1,2,3} << '\n';
std::cout << std::map<int,int> { {1,2}, {2,3}, {3,1} } << '\n';
is:
[1,2,3]
{1,2,3}
{(1,2), (2,3), (3,1)}

In the example std::vector is interpreted as an ordered_dynamic container
and std::set and std::map are interpreted as associative_dynamic containers
by the library. 
The library recursively outputs the contents of each container, so because
std::map::value_type is a std::pair (which models Boost.Fusion's sequence
concept) it can also output that. std::pair is interpreted as an
ordered_fixed container by the library.
The library picks the appropriate category for each type being outputted by
using Boost.MPL to introspect the type of the object being outputted.

In the future I would like to extend the library to offer facilities to help
users implement a operator<< (std::ostream&, T) function for arbitrary types
but I haven't really given that a lot of thought yet.

The library's name is currently Boost.Stringize but I don't really like that
name and I'm really open for suggestions.

Overall I think this library would make a good addition to Boost as it
simplifies things for the end user.
If a user wants to output a vector, he/she shouldn't have to iterate over
it. It should be as simple as outputting an int.
In Python a user can just "print [1,2,3]". Why can't we have something
similar in C++?

Is there any interest for this library in Boost?

Thanks,
Tal Zion

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