March 2004 - Boost-announce

Review Result: Circular Buffer
by Pavel Vozenilek 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

The circular_buffer library by Jan Gaspar has been accepted into Boost. The reviews were helpful in finding at least one issue with the library and few ones with its documentation. Thanks to all reviewers for the time and effort! Post-review version 3.7 will be released before code gets into main CVS. Main points to be addressed: - issue of copy construction versus construct/destruct has been cleared (the problem was created by me) - documentation should list exception safety for every function - documentation may add some rationale on its internal data structures and their advantage over std::deque - portability problems should be solved - adaptor with notification when oldest element gets pushed out of bufer may be added Other points that may be considered: - name of data() function - existence of push_back(void) like functions - using new iterator adaptors - difference between resize/set_capacity may be more emphasized in docs, - other fixes/improvements suggested during review. Thanks for professional quality work, Jano. /Pavel

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Formal Review: Indexed Set
by Pavel Vozenilek 19 Mar '04

19 Mar '04

The review of Indexed Set library, written by Joaquín M López Muñoz starts today (March 20) and runs for 10 days. Latest version (9.4) of the library is available on: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/files/indexed_set.zip (328 kB) What it is? indexed_set is generic, STL compliant container providing one or more views on its data. These views allow to use data sorted according to different criteria. Change in container data is automatically propagated into all views. How many views and what ordering is applied is specified in declarative way, as template parameter. What it is good for? - it can replace multiple collections of data and hand-written code keeping them in sync. - it can replace standard containers (as std::set or std::list) if these may not meet future reqirements. - it can serve as basic for other libraries. For example RTL (relational tables library) may use indexed_set to hold its data. Other features of indexed_set: - sorting can be performed on result of member function (similar to calculated indexes in RDBMS). - indexed_set can be used as 'wrapper' over other data structures, e.g you can see data in std::vector as being sorted in set-like structure (but without structures being synchronized). - many, many others ... Future development: - planned functionality is described on its own page in documentation. - indexed_set may also implement access to its data in the same way as std::deque, with random O(1) access History of the project: - it started as 'bimap' library more than year ago, - some two dozen iterations were released, - several Boost people expressed their interest or did suggest features. Boost-wide reusable parts of the library: - indexed_set includes (nearly verbatim) copy of Andrei Alexandresu ScopeGuard. It is intended as stop-gap until Boost wide library emerges. - maybe auto_space.hpp can be liften into utilities. Portability: - see document page for list of compilers and their issues - Can someone try to run tests under release mode of VC 6.5? We got different results with different machines. Word from the autor: "Thank you for reviewing indexed_set. There are several points, mostly concerning naming, that I'd like to be discussed during the review. You can find these at the URL http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/files/indexed_set_review_notes.html If you evaluate the library and deem it acceptable for Boost, please walk the extra mile and express your opinions about the issues brought forward in the review notes. Naming issues are quite sensitive, and I'd like to reach as general a consensus as possible." Your review comments are welcomed. Found problems and suggestions for documentation are highly sought. Requests for new features requests may shape way indexed_set will evolve in future. As naming questions can generate lot of mail-list traffic, I'll start separate thread to deal with them. /Pavel

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Formal Review: Circular Buffer
by Pavel Vozenilek 05 Mar '04

05 Mar '04

The review of Jan Gaspar's Circular Buffer library starts today (March 5th) and runs for 10 days. Latest version of the library is available at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/files/circular_buffer_v3.6.zip What it is: Circular buffer (also known as ring or cyclic buffer) is container with fixed upper limit on number of elements inside. When capacity gets exhausted newly inserted elements will cause oldest elements to get dropped out. What makes the library Boost candidate: - it provides often used functionality, - it is STL compliant generic solution, - it is designed for CPU/memory efficiency, - it is fully documented and tested, - it contains extensive debug support, - it has been informally reviewed for long time. Discovered problems in code or in documentation, missing features, portability issues and finally opinion whether the library belongs to Boost is welcomed. /Pavel

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