Re: [boost] Boost.Fiber review January 6-15

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost.Fiber review January 6-15
From: Agustín K-ballo Bergé (kaballo86_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-01-08 21:20:56

On 08/01/2014 12:20 p.m., Nat Goodspeed wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Hartmut Kaiser <hartmut.kaiser_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
>> One of the main questions arising for me when looking through the code is
>> why doesn't the fiber class expose the same API as std::thread (or
>> boost::thread for that matter)? This would make using fibers so much more
>> usable, even more as the rest of the library was aligned with the C++11
>> standard library.
>
> To the best of my knowledge, Oliver is indeed trying to mimic the
> std::thread API. It would be very helpful if you would point out the
> deltas that you find distressing.
>

Just from looking at the documentation:

- The constructor takes a nullary function, instead of a callable and an 
arbitrary number of parameters. It is not clear whether Fn has to be a 
function object or if it can be a callable as with std::thread. The 
order of parameters of the overload taking attributes does not match 
that of boost::thread.

- No notion of native_handle (this may not make sense for fibers, I 
haven't looked at the implementation).

- There is no notion of explicit operator bool in neither boost::thread 
nor std::thread.

- There is an operator < for fibers and none for id. There should be no 
relational operators for fiber, and the full set for fiber::id as well 
as hash support and ostream insertion.

- Several functions take a fixed time_point type instead of a chrono one.

- There is no indication whether the futures support void (I assume they 
do) and R& (I assume they don't). The return type for shared_future::get 
is wrong. Again, there's additional explicit operator bools.

- The documentation for promise doesn't seem to support void, it is 
unclear whether they support references. Another explicit operator bool.

- I saw mentions of async in the documentation, but I couldn't find the 
actual documentation for it. It's not clear whether deferred futures are 
supported, at least they appear not to be from future's reference.

Regards,
-- 
Agustín K-ballo Bergé.-
http://talesofcpp.fusionfenix.com