Today is the last day of the review of the Named Parameters library by
David Abrahams and Daniel Wallin. Let's hear some more comments! The
original announcement follows:
The Named Parameters library provides a framework for writing functions
that can accept arguments by name or by position. The use of named
parameters can improve the readability of calls to these functions,
especially when the functions have many parameters with default values.
The Named Parameters library allows one to write a new_window function
that allows a call such as:
window* w = new_window("alert2", movable = true);
The library is available in the Boost sandbox here:
boost/named_params.hpp
libs/utility
And in the files area (login required):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/files/named_params.zip
Reviewers may wish to compare this solution to the named parameters
already used by the Boost Graph Library, documented here:
http://www.boost.org/libs/graph/doc/bgl_named_params.html
Please send your reviews either to the Boost list or to me personally.
The former is preferred, because it allows the community to consider
your review as well. When writing your review, you may wish to consider
the following questions (from
http://www.boost.org/more/formal_review_process.htm#Comments)
- What is your evaluation of the design?
- What is your evaluation of the implementation?
- What is your evaluation of the documentation?
- What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library?
- Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have
any problems?
- How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick
reading? In-depth study?
- Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain?
As always, please remember to clearly state whether you believe the
library should be accepted into Boost.
Thank you
Doug Gregor
Review Manager, Named Parameters library
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ NOTE: This is a stripped-down copy of the Boost 1.32.0 release +
+ notes. See http://www.boost.org for the full version. +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Important - New Toolset Names
-----------------------------
The names of some the Boost.Build toolsets have been changed to remove
the "." (dot) character and to fix some other naming
inconsistencies. For example, vc7.1 toolset was renamed to become
vc-7_1. Please refer to the Supported Toolsets section of the
installation guide for the complete list of the current toolset
names. This change was made as a part of the effort to make the Boost
distribution compatible with ISO 9660 level 2 requirements.
New Libraries
-------------
* Assignment Library: Filling containers with constant or generated
data has never been easier, from Thorsten Ottosen.
* Minmax Library: Standard library extensions for simultaneous
min/max and min/max element computations, from Herv
Brnnimann.
* Multi-index Containers Library: Containers with multiple
STL-compatible access interfaces, from Joaqun M Lpez
Muoz.
* Numeric Conversion Library: Optimized policy-based numeric
conversions, from Fernando Cacciola.
* Program Options Library: Access to configuration data given on
command line, in config files and other sources, from Vladimir
Prus.
* Range Library: A new infrastructure for generic algorithms that
builds on top of the new iterator concepts, from Thorsten Ottosen.
* Serialization Library: Serialization/de-serialization of arbitrary
C++ data structures to various formats including text, binary, and
xml, from Robert Ramey.
* String Algorithms Library: Collection of string related algorithms
for case conversion, trimming, find/replace operations and more,
from Pavol Droba.
* Tribool: 3-state boolean type library, from Doug Gregor.
Updated Libraries
-----------------
* Compose: This deprecated library has been removed.
* Graph:
- Added bundled properties to the adjacency_list and
adjacency_matrix class templates, greatly simplifying the
introduction of internal vertex and edge properties.
- The LEDA graph adaptors have been ported to LEDA 4.5.
- Added algorithms for betweenness centrality and betweenness
centrality clustering.
- Added circle layout and undirected spring layout algorithms.
* MPL Library:
- Updated to use the Boost Software License.
- New documentation, including a complete reference manual.
- Major interface changes and improvements, many of which are
not backward compatible. Please refer to the 1.32 changelog
for the detailed information about upgrading to the new
version.
* Python Library:
- Updated to use the Boost Software License.
- A new, better method of wrapping classes with virtual
functions has been implemented.
- Support for the new Python Bool type, thanks to Daniel Holth.
- Support for upcoming GCC symbol export control features have
been folded in, thanks to Niall Douglas.
- Improved support for std::auto_ptr-like types.
- Components used by other libraries have been moved out of
python/detail and into boost/detail to improve dependency
relationships.
- Miscellaneous bug fixes and compiler workarounds.
* Signals Library: Introduced deterministic slot ordering,
permitting slots to be connected at the beginning or end of slot
groups or the slot list itself. Combiners may safely have state
and are accessible from the signal.
* Utility: class template result_of added.
* Test Library:
- namespace names gets shorten; old one still supported till
next release.
- added proper encoding of XML PCDATA.
- support for wide string comparison implemented.
For complete list of changes see Test Library release notes.
Regression tests
-----------------
This release has been extensively tested on a variety of different
compilers and platforms. It is known to contain no regressions
against the previous reference release on the compilers and
configurations tested. Please refer to the corresponding regression
reports at http://www.meta-comm.com/engineering/boost-regression/1_32_0
to see how well your compiler performs on the new Boost codebase.
Acknowledgements
----------------
This release wouldn't have been possible without the dedicated effort
of many, many members of the Boost community who generously
contributed their outstanding expertise, time and energy to making it
happen. For patches, bug fixes, troubleshooting, expert advice, and
prompt responses to the release manager's requests we thank:
David Abrahams, Misha Bergal, Jonathan Brandmeyer, Fernando Cacciola,
Marshall Clow, Christopher Currie, Pavol Droba, Caleb Epstein, Eric
Friedman, Jeff Garland, Michael Glassford, Doug Gregor, Joel de
Guzman, Hubert Holin, Jaakko Jrvi, Hartmut Kaiser, Bronek Kozicki,
Tarjei Knapstad, Toon Knapen, Aaron W. LaFramboise, Joaqun M
Lpez Muoz, Christoph Ludwig, John Maddock, Paul Mensonides,
Guillaume Melquiond, Thorsten Ottosen, Vladimir Prus, Robert Ramey,
Rene Rivera, Gennadiy Rozental, Stefan Slapeta, Jonathan Turkanis,
Pavel Vozenilek, Jonathan Wakely, Daryle Walker, Victor A. Wagner
Jr. and Martin Wille.
Also, our special thanks go to: John Maddock for the managing the
effort of converting the majority of the Boost libraries to the Boost
Software License, Eric Niebler and Joel de Guzman for taking on the
important job of improving the Boost documentation's look and feel,
and last, but not least, to our regression test runners, without whom
we simply would never have released: Toon Knapen, Bronek Kozicki, Rene
Rivera, Markus Schpflin, Stefan Slapeta, Victor A. Wagner Jr. and
Martin Wille.
Thank you everybody!
--
Aleksey Gurtovoy
MetaCommunications Engineering
