Re: [boost] [AFIO] Review (or lack of it)

Subject: Re: [boost] [AFIO] Review (or lack of it)
From: Gruenke,Matt (mgruenke_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-08-30 17:54:02

-----Original Message-----
From: Boost [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Niall Douglas
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2015 19:08
To: boost_at_[hidden]
Subject: Re: [boost] [AFIO] Review (or lack of it)

> It is trivial to redirect std::cerr elsewhere.

This assumes the user is not using std::cerr for something else.  Please never use std::cerr, in a library.  Every library I've seen that wants to log that "something bad happened" supports a user-supplied log function.  To this end, I'd strongly prefer a configurable callback, rather than a macro.  If a macro is used, then it places the burden of understanding how it interacts with the library's internal state on the user.

As for std::terminate(), if unwinding the call stack would leave the program in a state from where it could not reliably be returned to a known-good state, then I think calling std::terminate() is the best option.  I understand that, in the real world, there might be error conditions (similar to assertion failures), where some inconsistency is detected.  In such cases, I think it's far better to log and abort, than to try to continue in a bad state.  There's no benefit to using exceptions, here - only downsides.

Matt

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