January 2015 - Boost-announce

[release] Release schedule changes..
by Rene Rivera 27 Jan '15

27 Jan '15

After some discussion in the Boost Release Team we've decided on an ongoing schedule for releases. Taking into account the realities of how long it takes for authors and the release team to work on a release we've decided to move to *three* releases a year. The targets for the releases will now be: * Spring release on the second Wednesday of April. * Summer release on the second Wednesday of August. * Fall/Winter release on the second Wednesday of December. There will be no January release. This will allow for the fact that most people are on extended holidays during Winter. It will also allow for people to work on larger changes that require more testing time during the longer Winter period. We are also moving to Wednesday release to allow the release managers non-weekend time to work before and after the release. Please consult the Boost calendar for specific dates and merge schedule for the next release. Thanks, the Boost Release Team. -- -- Rene Rivera -- Grafik - Don't Assume Anything -- Robot Dreams - http://robot-dreams.net -- rrivera/acm.org (msn) - grafikrobot/aim,yahoo,skype,efnet,gmail

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[Review] Boost.Endian mini-review
by Joel FALCOU 23 Jan '15

23 Jan '15

The mini-review of Boost.Endian starts today and runs through Sunday, February 1. The library repository is available on GitHub at https://github.com/boostorg/endian The docs for the library can be viewed online at https://boostorg.github.io/endian/ The objective of the mini-review is to verify that the issues raised during the formal review have been addressed. Those issues are documented at https://boostorg.github.io/endian/mini_review_topics.html which also describes the resolution of each issue. Comments and suggestions unrelated to the mini-review issues are also welcome, but the key question the review manager needs your opinion on is this: Is the library ready to be added to Boost releases? -- Joel Falcou, Endian Review Manager

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Review Wizard Status Report for January 2015
by Ron Garcia 23 Jan '15

23 Jan '15

============================================== Review Wizard Status Report for January 2015 ============================================== News ==== 1. Boost 1.56 Released November 2014. New Libraries: none 2. Sort Accepted. November 2014. 3. Compute Accepted. December 2014. Open Issues =========== The following libraries have review managers, but have not yet been scheduled for review: * Range Extensions - added May 2012; review manager: Neil Groves. The following libraries have been accepted to Boost, but have not yet been integrated into Boost Git: * Contract - accepted September 2012; author: Lorenzo Caminiti. * Sort - accepted November 2014: author: . * Compute - accepted December 2014: author: . The following libraries have been accepted and submitted to Boost Git, but have not yet appeared in a release: * Convert - accepted June 2014; author: Vladimir Batov. The following libraries have been accepted provisionally to Boost, but have not been submitted for mini-review and full acceptance: * Endian - accepted provisionally September 2011; author Beman Dawes. * Fiber - accepted provisionally January 2014; author Oliver Kowalke. General Announcements ===================== As always, we need experienced review managers. Please take a look at the list of libraries in need of managers and check out their descriptions. In general review managers are active boost participants, including library contributors, infrastructure contributors, and other mailing list participants with a substantial track record of constructive participation. If you can serve as review manager for any of them, email Ron Garcia or John Phillips, "rxg at cs dot ubc dot ca" and "johnphillipsithica at gmail dot com" respectively. We are also suffering from a lack of reviewers. While we all understand time pressures and the need to complete paying work, the strength of Boost is based on the detailed and informed reviews submitted by you. If you are interested in reviewing a library but won't have time during the review period, you can always prepare your review ahead of time. No rule says you can only work on a review during the review period. A link to this report will be posted to www.boost.org. If you would like us to make any modifications or additions to this report, please email Ron or John. The review schedule is an unordered list of the libraries awaiting review. As such, any library on the schedule can be reviewed once the developer is ready, a review manager has been secured, and the manager, developer, and wizards agree on a date to schedule the review. Review Schedule =============== * Join (M) * Sorting (M) * Quaternions, Vectors, Matrices (M) * Block Pointer (M) * Singularity (M) * Extended Complex Numbers (M) * Metaparse (M) * Boost.Range Extensions * Nowide (M) * Array (M) * STL Extensions (M) * Countertree (M) * Process (M) * Asynchronous File I/O (M) * Application (M) * Edit Distance (M) * Mixin (M) * Dependency Injection (M) * DLL (M) ``(M)`` marks libraries that need review managers. -------------------- Join ---- :Author: Yigong Liu :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://channel.sourceforge.net/ :Description: Join is an asynchronous, message based C++ concurrency library based on join calculus. It is applicable both to multi-threaded applications and to the orchestration of asynchronous, event-based applications. It follows Comega's design and implementation and builds with Boost facilities. It provides a high level concurrency API with asynchronous methods, synchronous methods, and chords which are "join-patterns" defining the synchronization, asynchrony, and concurrency. Sorting ------- :Author: Steven Ross :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/boost-vault/Sorting :Description: A grouping of 3 templated hybrid radix/comparison-based sorting algorithms that provide superior worst-case and average-case performance to std::sort: integer_sort, which sorts fixed-size data types that support a rightshift (default of >>) and a comparison (default of <) operator. float_sort, which sorts standard floating-point numbers by safely casting them to integers. string_sort, which sorts variable-length data types, and is optimized for 8-bit character strings. All 3 algorithms have O(n(k/s + s)) runtime where k is the number of bits in the data type and s is a constant, and limited memory overhead (in the kB for realistic inputs). In testing, integer_sort varies from 35% faster to 2X as fast as std::sort, depending on processor, compiler optimizations, and data distribution. float_sort is roughly 70% faster than std::sort. string_sort is roughly 2X as fast as std::sort. Quaternions, Vectors, Matrices ------------------------------ :Author: Emil Dotchevski :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://www.revergestudios.com/boost-qvm/ :Description: QVM defines a set of generic functions and operator overloads for working with quaternions, vectors and matrices of static size. The library also defines vector and matrix data types, however it allows users to introduce their own types by specializing the q_traits, v_traits and m_traits templates. Block Pointer ------------- :Author: Phil Bouchard :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/block_ptr/ :Description: Deterministic memory manager of constant complexity capable of handling cyclic collections. Singularity ----------- :Author: Ben Robinson :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/cppmaven/Singularity :Description: The Singularity Design Pattern allows you to restrict any class to a single instance. Unlike the infamous Singleton, Singularity gives you direct control over the lifetime of the object, does not require you to grant global access to the object, nor does it limit you to the default constructor for that object. Extended Complex Numbers ------------------------ :Author: Matthieu Schaller :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://code.google.com/p/cpp-imaginary-numbers/ :Description: The library is an extension of the std::complex class addressing two issues: 1. The standard does not guaranty the behaviour of the complex class if instantiated with types other than float/double/long double. 2. Some calculation where pure imaginary numbers (i.e. multiples of sqrt(-1)) appear are unnecessarily slowed down due to the lack of support for these numbers. The code I submit contains two interleaved classes boost::complex and boost::imaginary which can be instantiated with any type T provided T overloads the usual arithmetic operators and some basic (real) mathematical functions depending on which complex function will be used. It is thus an extended version of Thorsten Ottosen's n1869 proposal (http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG21/docs/papers/2005/n1869.html) Metaparse --------- :Author: Abel Sinkovics :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://abel.web.elte.hu/metaparse/metaparse.zip :Description: Metaparse is a library for constructing parsers parsing at compile-time based on template metaprogramming. The parsers built with the library take boost::mpl::strings as input and can produce - types - objects (types with public static members) - callable C++ functions (types with public static method) - template metafunction classes as output (based on the input being parsed). On compilers supporting constexpr the library provides the following syntactic sugar for writing the input of the parsers: BOOST_STRING("this is a string") The library can be used for implementing DSLs in C++, including DSLs making C++ template metaprogramming easier (see examples). Range Extensions ---------------- :Author: Akira Takahashi :Review Manager: Neil Groves :Download: https://github.com/faithandbrave/OvenToBoost :Description: This project adds some features of the Oven Range Library to Boost.Range. Features: - Additional Range Adaptors (taken, taken_while, dropped, dropped_while, elements, elements_key, memoized, outdirected) - Extensions for using Lambda (regular function, regular operator) - Infinite Range (iteration function) - and additional range utilities. Nowide ------ :Author: Artyom Beilis :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://cppcms.com/files/nowide/ :Description: This library makes cross platform Unicode aware programming easier. It provides an implementation of standard C and C++ library functions, such that their inputs are UTF-8 aware on Windows without requiring to use Wide API. Array ----- :Author: Brian Smith :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/BrianJSmith/Array :Description: The array class is a C++11 compatible implementation of static multidimensional arrays. STL Extensions -------------- :Author: Vadim Stadnik :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/vstadnik/stl_ext_adv_review :Description: The proposed library [stl_ext_adv] offers augmented array based B+ trees and STL containers that support the interfaces of the C++03 sequences and associative containers. The library offers a number of extensions and performance improvements that are not available in C++03 and C++11 standard containers. Countertree ----------- :Author: Francisco Jose Tapia :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8437476/works/countertree_code_doc.zip :Description: This library is an implementation of a binary red-black counter tree. This tree have an additional counter in each leaf. This permit the access to the elements by the position, like in a vector. It is a random access container with random access iterators. COUNTERTREE This kind of trees have an additional counter in each leaf. This permit the access to the elements by the position, like in a vector. It is a random access container with random access iterators. With unordered information we have a vector with the same speed inserting and deleting in any position (O(log N)). With ordered information, we have the classes set, multiset, map and multimap, with identical interface than the STL classes, with the plus of access to the elements by position, like in a vector. The iterators are random access , and you can subtract them. SUBALLOCATOR The suballocator is a layer between the allocator and the data structures, compatible with any allocator with the STL definition. The suballocator replace to the allocator in the allocation of equal size elements. It provides speed, return the unused memory and decrease the memory used by the program and improve the cache performance due to the data locality improvement ( 30% of improvement of speed respect the std::allocator with GCC 4.7) Process ------- :Author: Boris Schaeling :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://www.highscore.de/boost/process0.5/process.zip :Description: Boost.Process is a library to manage system processes. It can be used to: * create child processes * setup streams for child processes * communicate with child processes through streams (synchronously or asynchronously) * wait for processes to exit (synchronously or asynchronously) * terminate processes Asynchronous File I/O --------------------- :Author: Niall Douglas and Paul Kirth :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/BoostGSoC/boost.afio/archive/boost-peer-review.tar.gz :Description: Boost.AFIO is a linear scalable, batch, chainable, asynchronous closure execution engine with an almost wait free implementation extending Boost.ASIO and Boost.Thread specialised as a portable asynchronous file i/o implementation library. Implementation of this first version has been kept as simple as possible (~ 1000 active LOC) at the cost of some performance, though with a good compiler you can expect 25-50% of the performance of using raw Boost.ASIO. Application ----------- :Author: Renato Tegon Forti :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/retf/Boost.Application :Documentation: http://www.dokfile.com/appbeta4/docs/libs/application/doc/html/index.html :Description: Application provides an application environment, or start point to any people that want a basic infrastructure to build an system application on Windows or Unix Variants (e.g. Linux, MacOS). Application uses behaviours modeled using 'aspects' concept proposed by 'Vicente J. Botet Escriba', that allow easy extension and customization of library components. The application modes uses these components internally to achieve the user desirable behaviours. Application provide many useful ready-to-use features, e.g: * Run application as Windows Service; * Run application as UNIX/POSIX Daemon; * Plugin extension system; * Process(executable) Single instance Instantiation support; * Application SIGNAL/Callbacks customization; * Windows Service Setup feature; * And many others. Edit Distance ------------- :Author: Erik Erlandson :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/erikerlandson/algorithm/tree/edit_distance/sequence :Description: The edit distance is the length of the shortest (or least-cost) edit script from one sequence to another, where an edit script is defined as a sequence of insertion, deletion and (optionally) substitution operations. The function implementing the edit distance is named edit_distance. This function will return the edit distance between two sequences, where sequences may be any valid range object supporting forward iteration. The edit_distance function will also, if requested, return the edit script. Mixin ----- :Author: Borislav Stanimirov :Download: https://github.com/iboB/boost.mixin :Documentation: http://ibob.github.io/boost.mixin/ :Review Manager: Needed :Description: Boost.Mixin is a library that allows the composition and modifications of polymorphic types at run time. Types and objects are constructed out of building blocks called mixins. The library uses the type boost::mixin::object as a placeholder, whose instances can be extended with existing classes (mixins), thus providing a particular instance with the functionality of all those types. Accessing the newly formed type's interface is made through messages: stand-alone functions generated by the library, which can be thought of as methods. This is given while also having full abstraction between the interface and the definition of types. An existing feature in another language similar to Boost.Mixin and also an inspiration for the library are the mixins in Ruby. The library also has similarities with the pattern entity-component-system. Dependency Injection -------------------- :Author: :Download: https://github.com/krzysztof-jusiak/di :Documentation: http://krzysztof-jusiak.github.io/di/boost/libs/di/doc/html :Incubator: http://rrsd.com/blincubator.com/bi_library/di-dependency-injection/?gform_p… :Review Manager: Needed :Description: Boost.DI is a dependency injection library improving manual dependency injection by simplifying object instantiation with automatic dependencies injection. Using Boost.DI has many advantages over manual dependency injection. * Reduce boilerplate code (No factories, no objects creation in specific order) * Reduce cost of maintenance effort (Constructor signature change won't affect di configuration) * Reduce testing effort * Give better control of what and how is created (Policies, Providers) * Give better understanding about objects hierarchy (UML Dumper) DLL --- :Author: Antony Polukhin :Download: https://github.com/apolukhin/Boost.DLL :Documentation: http://apolukhin.github.io/Boost.DLL/index.html :Review Manager: Needed :Description: This library was designed to simplify plugin development using C++ in a portable cross-platform manner. Library provides a portable across platforms way to: * load libraries * import any native functions and variables * make alias names for C++ mangled functions and symbols * query libraries for sections and exported symbols * self loading and self querying * getting program and module location by exported symbol Libraries under development =========================== See The Boost Library Incubator Project at http://blincubator.com for discussion of libraries currently under development.

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[gsoc15] Attn: We need 2015 mentors and project ideas for Boost!
by Niall Douglas 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

Dear Boost community, We are now within one month of the beginning of Google Summer of Code 2015! Last year's GSoC furthered the continuing success of the Boost GSoC programme with the first ever Boost funded extension to a GSoC project (that being Boost.Hana by Louis Dionne mentored by Joel Falcou, congrats to both of them on passing an exceptionally tough selection process), and over $50,000 of Google funding brought to Boost in 2014. We also sent three representatives to last year's mentor summit, including one student whose entire expenses the Boost Steering Committee very generously covered. As part of filling in our application for 2015, we must supply to Google a list of potential GSoC mentors and potential GSoC projects for summer 2015. There are a number of changes to how we design project ideas for students this year intended to improve the GSoC experience for both students and mentors, so please examine the ideas page which outlines those changes at https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2015 and if you have any questions or concerns about those changes, please ask now rather than just before the GSoC deadline. If you think yourself able to mentor a student doing some work on Boost this summer, *please* consider adding a description of the proposed work item and your name to the list. Last year we acquired eight slots from Google and had to disappoint two mentors and students, we hope with the improved selection process we can get back to the ten annual slots we once had. If you want to know more about mentoring a Google Summer of Code funded student work before you nominate yourself, please feel free to ask on the main Boost developers mailing list boost(a)lists.boost.org. Thank you in advance for your time. Niall Douglas (Boost Google Summer of Code admin) Boris Schäling (Boost Google Summer of Code admin) --- Boost C++ Libraries Google Summer of Code 2014 admin https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2014

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[boost] [compute] Review results
by Antony Polukhin 01 Jan '15

01 Jan '15

Hi all, Extended review period for Boost.Compute library has ended. Here are the review votes for inclusion (+ means include, - means do not include, +/- means conditional include or "probably include, not quite sure"): + Denis Demidov + Sebastian Schaetz + Pavan Yalamanchili - Gruenke,Matt (+ if more backends will be supported) + Asbjørn (mini-review/comments from a library user) + Thomas M (a lot of suggestions) + Paul A. Bristow + Belcourt, Kenneth + John Bytheway +/- Yiannis Papadopoulos (there's already Bolt/Thrust for beginner and pure OpenCL for pros) +/- Vicente J. Botet Escriba (better docs and more performance tests) +/- Jason Newton (there was no explicit answer to the question "shuld be this library accepted into Boost?" but the review was positive in general) To sum up: Compute library becomes part of the Boost. Great thanks to all for the reviews and comments! Huge work was done and the issues raised are essential for library success. P.S.: Happy new year everyone! P.P.S.: Hope I did not miss some review! In case of any error, please let me know! -- Best regards, Antony Polukhin

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