February 2005 - Boost - lists.boost.org

Re: [boost] Microsoft XML serialization patent
by JOAQUIN LOPEZ MU?Z 07 Feb '05

07 Feb '05

----- Mensaje original ----- De: Robert Ramey <ramey(a)rrsd.com> Fecha: Domingo, Febrero 6, 2005 11:28 pm Asunto: [boost] Microsoft XML serialization patent > I just came upon an incredible thing. > > It seems that microsoft has filed a U.S. Patent Application for XML > serialization. I'm sort of dumbfounded at this. Truth be told > I've seen > a lot of even more ridiculous patents but somehow this strikes > closer to > home. I'm really at a loss to appreciate the ramifcations of this > - if any. > Hi Robert, You shouldn't let this deprive you of your sleep :) Fact is, the primary reason for big companies patenting everything in sight is just the opposite than many people may think: this is a legal way to protect themselves from rogue firms trying to sue them. By being the first in patenting something, a future contender won't have the opportunity to file his own submission. A patent becomes invalid if somebody proves that the invention was in public use before submission of the patent. In the crazy case MS decided to enforce this serialization apparatus, one can easily claim that the two key ideas (namely XML as a serialization language and object tracking) were publicly used well before Dec 2004. But as I said, I don't really think it is MS' intention to go sue anybody. On a related theme, it is sad that patent offices all over the world will accept just everything submitted to them --from what I've learned about these issues in the past, the only requisite is that the submission is written according to some funky rules: for instance, in Spain you cannot patent an algorithm, but you can embed the algorithm into some kind of hypotethical physical apparatus and that will pass OK :) Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo PS: Off-topic, what happened to that article of yours relating the experiences of a Boost submitter? I really wanted to read it.

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Boost.Instrument library Proosal \ RE: [boost] Profiler Library Proposal
by Brian Braatz 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

Further thoughts added below (which is why I would be responding to my own post :) ) Including additional features \ design ideas to either add to Profiler, or make as a separate library. Additionally some thoughts on boost performance measurement of tests in general by using these ideas. > > -----Original Message----- > > On Behalf Of Martin Slater > > Subject: Re: [boost] Profiler Library Proposal > > > > christopher diggins wrote: > > > > > I have posted preliminary documentation and source code for a > proposal > > > for the boost profiler library at http://www.cdiggins.com/profiler/ > . > > > The code has been successfully compiled on Visual C++ 7.1 but not > > > tested yet. > > > > > > There have been some updates to the code as a result of the > > > suggestions made so far. Any further comments are appreciated. > > > > Being able to generate a heirarchicle recording / output would be very > > useful (the profiler we use at work does this) so you can drill down > > into code areas that are running slow. > > > > cheers > [Brian Braatz] > Sharing some experiences in relation to where this thread looks like it > may go :) > > I am not proposing a library, just sharing with you a library I wrote > and what the results were of building it. > > About a year ago, I played around with some similar concepts. > > I fundamentally wanted to "see what it would look like" if I could > converge > * Design By contract, > * hierarchical logging > * profiling > Both by function and by cross cut concepts from a set of > functions AND the operations IN those functions > * reverse time debugging- > I.e. you can go back in time and see how the call stack > got you to where the error occurred. In addition to the previous call > stacks that are now "gone". > * Thread specific data tracking burned into the design > > By building the library, I got all of the above working. However many > questions remained for me as to if the syntax required was "too much". > This is still an open question in my mind in that I have not personally > decided either way. > > As you will see the "requirements" for a simple function are quite > verbose. > > > What I built: > Simple syntax for both profiling and for logging of the > "context" of a concept. > Ability to grab the callstack of "where" an error occurred and > what the code was doing when it hit an error. > Ability to put the local variables and the parameters into a > call stack > Ability to plug in profiling in such a way as to view a > cross\cut of the performance of a set of operations > Also time profiling was done on EVERYTHING- so with a fancy XSLT > modifer, you can cross cut and get whatever kind of "executive level > analysis" you want on the sheer volumne of data you have > Basically, to the application coders, what this looks like is an > "Eiffel" style programming model in C++, with the behind the scenes > advantage of > Profiling > Call stack tracing > Heirarchcal logging- > With context concepts embedded in the log so you can go > back later and look at a "slice" of the performance of something. I even > built a debugger that let me look at the xml files and do this. > [Brian Braatz] I was thinking about this for the last few hours. Primarily I was thinking about how to get the advantage of the lib I described last post, without having the pain involved in the app code with bulky standards to conform to. One of the problems with profiling is you have to, when you design the library, decide how intrusive to be. When I did my experiment\bunny trail, I found that there are *A LOT* of interesting things that can be done, you just have to have an extremely intrusive library to do that. It should be possible however to do the following. 1- Keep going on the profiler thinking. This is good 2- Build either a separate lib (Boost.Instrument?) or a separate piece of Boost.Profiler which: * Is built on top of Spirit * Is capable of parsing C++ code and re-generating an instrumented version of that * Is HEAVILY policy\trait driven in such a way as people can "decide for themselves" what they want to tweak or add to in the outputted instrumented files ** I.e. by modifying the policies for Boost.Profiler and modifying the policies for Boost.Instrument you can "Have it your way :) " * Is built part and parcel with the profiler libray, since what the Instrument library is doing is delivering code which uses the profiler library Why I think this idea is a good one: * I can go buy Boundschecker. Or some other profiler \ debugger. ** I cannot "dig inside it and change it" (!) ** Too frequently these things give me TOO MUCH information and not the right information I need. If I could modify how they work , then I could tailor it to my own problems. * for boost, this means we could run a instrumented build of all of boost and we could analyze\report on the different performance charaistics of lib\os\compiler combinations Part of this idea is inspired by the signal performance issue Jody Hagins: " Are there any docs which describe the performance of the signal/slot library? I was about to embark on a performance study because I want to use it in a very high performance critical code path, but I thought I'd ask if anyone else may have already done some work in this area. " http://tinyurl.com/5bpzq I am sorry, I have to run, and I have run out of time. There was another issue in regards to signals I recall where there looked like we had some performance issues. I regret I have not yet found that mail in the archive. I would love the regression tests, to also be able to spit out performance issues. This would also help me, as a user of boost, to ascertain for time critical code which compiler I wanted to use and how the boost libraries perform under X environment.

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RE: [boost] Profiler Library Proposal
by Brian Braatz 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

> -----Original Message----- > From: boost-bounces(a)lists.boost.org [mailto:boost-bounces@lists.boost.org] > On Behalf Of Martin Slater > Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 10:30 PM > To: boost(a)lists.boost.org > Subject: Re: [boost] Profiler Library Proposal > > christopher diggins wrote: > > > I have posted preliminary documentation and source code for a proposal > > for the boost profiler library at http://www.cdiggins.com/profiler/ . > > The code has been successfully compiled on Visual C++ 7.1 but not > > tested yet. > > > > There have been some updates to the code as a result of the > > suggestions made so far. Any further comments are appreciated. > > Being able to generate a heirarchicle recording / output would be very > useful (the profiler we use at work does this) so you can drill down > into code areas that are running slow. > > cheers [Brian Braatz] Sharing some experiences in relation to where this thread looks like it may go :) I am not proposing a library, just sharing with you a library I wrote and what the results were of building it. About a year ago, I played around with some similar concepts. I fundamentally wanted to "see what it would look like" if I could converge * Design By contract, * hierarchical logging * profiling Both by function and by cross cut concepts from a set of functions AND the operations IN those functions * reverse time debugging- I.e. you can go back in time and see how the call stack got you to where the error occurred. In addition to the previous call stacks that are now "gone". * Thread specific data tracking burned into the design By building the library, I got all of the above working. However many questions remained for me as to if the syntax required was "too much". This is still an open question in my mind in that I have not personally decided either way. As you will see the "requirements" for a simple function are quite verbose. What I built: Simple syntax for both profiling and for logging of the "context" of a concept. Ability to grab the callstack of "where" an error occurred and what the code was doing when it hit an error. Ability to put the local variables and the parameters into a call stack Ability to plug in profiling in such a way as to view a cross\cut of the performance of a set of operations Also time profiling was done on EVERYTHING- so with a fancy XSLT modifer, you can cross cut and get whatever kind of "executive level analysis" you want on the sheer volumne of data you have Basically, to the application coders, what this looks like is an "Eiffel" style programming model in C++, with the behind the scenes advantage of Profiling Call stack tracing Heirarchcal logging- With context concepts embedded in the log so you can go back later and look at a "slice" of the performance of something. I even built a debugger that let me look at the xml files and do this. App Code Requirements: The application code must do the following: Have a Root object Get a context object from root Pass the context object into each function with the name ctx This is for both thread reasons and the Use a Eiffel style syntax in the functions What this looks like in app code (sample code below actually works) void MyFunction3(Context ctx,int i,Object *p) { Function ( MyClass, MyFunction3, "Function Used for rotation" ); Parameters Param (i,"Integer for how many times to loop" ); Param (p,"Object to do something with" ); Locals int w = 0; Local(w,"Value for the weather"); int x = 0; Local(x,"Drag Coefficient"); Pre Execute comments << "Func3 is reobooting windows 95" << endl; ctx.SetError(std::string("DATABASE IS MISSING"),FLUID); Post EndFunc } void MyFunction2(Context ctx,int i,Object *p) { Function ( MyClass, MyFunction2, "Function Used for calculation" ); Parameters Param (i,"Integer for how many times to loop" ); Param (p,"Object to do something with" ); Locals int w = 0; Local(w,"Value for the weather"); int x = 0; Local(x,"Drag Coefficient"); Pre Execute comments << "Searching for weapons of mass destruction" << endl; MyFunction3(ctx,i,p); Post EndFunc } void MyFunction1(Context ctx,int i,Object *p) { Function ( MyClass, MyFunction1, "some other Function Used for calculation" ); Parameters Param(i,"Integer for counting") ; Param(p,"Object to destroy" ); Locals int w = 0; Local(w, "Value for the weather"); int x = 0; Local(x, "Drag Coefficient"); Operation (opAddToVector, "Add passed string "); Operation (opFindAllElements, "Find all elements "); Pre ctx.Check( i == 1,"i Must be greater than one ",FLUID); ctx.Check( Valid(p) || IsNull(p) , "p must be a valid object or null", FLUID); Execute { Scope (opAddToVector); comments << "Adding to vector" << endl; { Scope (opFindAllElements); Comments << "Finding all elements" << endl; MyFunction2(ctx,i,p); } } Post EndFunc }

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Re: [boost] class diagrams for template heavy design
by Igor Kholodov 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

Vasco Lohrenscheit wrote: > I'm currently in the situation to document > a heavy templated class design >(generic with templated policies and > partial specializations, but nothing > too exotic like boost::mpl ;-). I always > prefer graphical UML like class > diagrams to describe the basic design. Now I > wonder if there are any good > graphical representations for templated code > but haven't found anything on > this with a quick google search. You may try latst version of doxygen http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/ which uses graphviz drawing kit, http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/ Doxygen now supports template partial specialization in produced diagrams the way you expect. Regards, Igor Kholodov cttl(a)users.sourceforge.net http://cttl.sourceforge.net/

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[mpl][doc]range-c.html size<r>::type -> size<r>::value
by Larry Evans 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

Shouldn't size<r>::type in the table be size<r>::value? The examples following the table do show the use of value.

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[boost.assign] RFC on small updates
by Thorsten Ottosen 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

Hi All, For the next revision of boost.assign I have planned the following changes: 1. all arguments are passed by const reference 2. support for boost.graph 3. list_of()'s type has begin() and end() member functions. These will now return a mutable iterator even though they are const. (to allow better use of anonymous arrays) 4. a new super-efficient version of list_of() which can be used whenever efficiency matters and when references needs to be forwarded. For example: template< class Range > typename Range::const_iterator max_element( const Range& r ) { return std::max_element( r.begin(), r.end() ); } ... int a=1,b=5,c=3,d=4,e=2,f=9,g=0,h=7; ... int& max = *max_element( list_of<8,int&>(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(h) ); BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL( max, f ); max = 8; BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL( f, 8 ); The question is if we should allow list_of<5,T> where T is not a reference or if we should require a reference argument (for the sake of efficiency). Thanks for your feedback -Thorsten -- Thorsten Ottosen ---------------------------- Dezide Aps -- Intelligent Customer Support: www.dezide.com Aalborg University --- Decision Support Systems: http://www.cs.aau.dk/index2.php?content=Research/bss C++ Boost: www.boost.org C++ Standard: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG21/

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A Refcounting Handle Class that supports CrossCasts
by Tommy Nordgren 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

I have developed a nonintrusive Reference Counting Handle class that supports crosscasts. The limitaions are that both source and target parameter types must have virtual methods, and that currently it don't supports access from multiple threads, Do the esteemed members of this list think that such a class would be a useful addition to the library?? "Home is not where you are born, but where your heart finds peace" - Tommy Nordgren, "The dying old crone"

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Profiler Library Proposal
by christopher diggins 06 Feb '05

06 Feb '05

I have posted preliminary documentation and source code for a proposal for the boost profiler library at http://www.cdiggins.com/profiler/ . The code has been successfully compiled on Visual C++ 7.1 but not tested yet. There have been some updates to the code as a result of the suggestions made so far. Any further comments are appreciated. Christopher Diggins Object Oriented Template Library (OOTL) http://www.ootl.org

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[boost.tr1?] request for a hash<> implementation
by Joaquín Mª López Muñoz 05 Feb '05

05 Feb '05

Hi, There are several Boost-related projects underway around the theme of unordered containers (in my case, I'm pretty much on the verge of releasing a preview of hashed indices for Boost.MultiIndex.) All these projects have the common need of a hash<> implementation being available, preferrably promoted to a public namespace rather than as an implementation detail. Although Boost.TR1's purpose is not to implement new features but rather wrap them to achieve std::tr1-compliance, I think it'd be very useful if some tr1-hash implementation could be added to Boost. For the record, I'm currently using Jeremy Maitin-Shepard and Daniel James' implementation in Sanbox files/unordered.tar.gz. I think it is a rather solid implementation, taking care of compilers witohut PTS such as MSVC++ 6.0/7.0. As for the location, my pereference would be boost/functional/hash.hpp. Boost.TR1 could embrace this later in boost/tr1/functional.hpp. Could this be done? Maybe as a separate activity from Boost.TR1? Am I entitled to do it myself as part of the upgrade of my library, even though this would be adding a new library in disguise? As it happens, I think I'll be able to release hashed indices in time for Boost 1.33, but this detail can be a showstopper :( Thank you, Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

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Two alined_storage classes in the CVS
by JOAQUIN LOPEZ MU?Z 05 Feb '05

05 Feb '05

With the recent addition of TR1 aligned_storage to Boost.TT, there's a nasty collision with a class named exactly the same and living in boost/aligned_storage.hpp (this class is a spin-off from Boost.Variant, IIRC.) I think this has been discussed some months ago, but with no resolution to the best of my knowledge. Apart from the symbol clash, these two classes do not provide the same functionality, so I guess it'd be sensible to rename the older aligned_storage to something else. Ideas? Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Invstigación y Desarrollo

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