Re: [boost] Removing auto_ptr/etc. from Boost

Subject: Re: [boost] Removing auto_ptr/etc. from Boost
From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-03-19 11:36:51

On Thursday 19 March 2015 09:28:11 Steven Watanabe wrote:
> AMDG
> 
> On 03/19/2015 03:03 AM, Andrey Semashev wrote:
> > Boost.Log is missing here.
> > 
> > I'm worried about random_shuffle. In Boost.Log case I don't care about
> > randomness quality, what's important is performance. I suspect replacing
> > random_shuffle with shuffle+RNG will be inferior,
> 
> I highly doubt it.  The algorithm is
> essentially the same, the only difference
> is the source of randomness.

That's the source of my suspicion. Looking at Boost.Random, creating RNG 
involves seed generation, which is probably one or several syscalls, let alone 
any possible resource allocations. This has to be done on each call to 
shuffle, if I understand correctly. Compare that with rand(), which is 
presumably purely computational and never fails.

> In fact,
> if you don't care about the randomness,
> with shuffle, it's easier to substitute
> a faster, lower quality PRNG.

That's what rand() is for, isn't it? But as far as I can see, there is no 
standard adapter of this function to the RNG interface, so I have to write 
one. I can do that, no problem, but this is clearly a case for random_shuffle 
to exist for.