Re: [boost] [TypeIndex] Peer review period for library acceptance begins, ending Thurs 21st Nov

Subject: Re: [boost] [TypeIndex] Peer review period for library acceptance begins, ending Thurs 21st Nov
From: Antony Polukhin (antoshkka_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-11-12 16:46:50

2013/11/13 Niall Douglas <s_sourceforge_at_[hidden]>
<...>

> On 12 Nov 2013 at 11:59, Robert Ramey wrote:
>
> > On Tuesday, November 12, 2013 11:34:27 AM UTC-8, Niall Douglas wrote:
> >
> > > Boost community feedback is requested for the formal peer review of
> > > the TypeIndex library by Antony Polukhin. Feedback requested
> > > includes ...
> >
> >
> > The above phrasing is a little unclear to me. Is this is a formal review
> of
> > the library?
>

Yes, it's a formal review.

> > I've just glanced over the documentation but I do have a couple of
> > questions.
> >
> > The serialization library contains a component "extended_typeinfo".  Am I
> > correct
> > in my understanding that this component is meant to address the same
> > issues that extended_typeinfo does?  If so, how are the two solutions
> > different?
>

In short:
* extended_typeinfo is not compatible with std::type_info and is hard to use
* TypeIndex is a correctly working std::type_info that does not require
RTTI + has other bonuses
* detail/sp_typeinfo.hpp implements part of TypeIndex functionality,
without workarounds for compiler issues

Longer description:

Serialization library is created to make a storeable in archive and
portable between compilers type identifications. It's interface is not
close to the interface of Standard Library, it requires A LOT of code to
make typeids work (see example at
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/boost/serialization/extended_type_info_no_rtti.hpp
)

TypeIndex is designed to be simple, fast and lightweight. It's a drop-in
replacement for std::type_info with big set of workarounds for issues of
different compilers and an extension to get human readable type names + it
contains a C++11 type_index class and works without RTTI. It does not
require user's support code to work. Take a look at this page:
http://apolukhin.github.io/type_index/boost_typeindex/getting_started.htmlto
see how Standard Library classes and methods are mapped to the
TypeIndex
ones.

TypeIndex is close to detail/sp_typeinfo.hpp (it's just a very very
enchanted sp_typeinfo that does not adds macro, embeds workarounds and has
interface of std::type_info + other features from paragraph above)

-- 
Best regards,
Antony Polukhin