March 2005 - Boost - lists.boost.org

offline code generator for BIL
by christopher diggins 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

I just wanted to put forth that I really could use an offline code generator for my work on the OOTL. I only want a handful of interfaces for the library which won't change often. The benefits for me are: a) I won't have extra boost dependencies for meta-programming b) have the fastest possible compile times for my library Christopher Diggins Object Oriented Template Library (OOTL) http://www.ootl.org

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Re: [boost] Re: [review] hash functions
by brangdon＠cix.compulink.co.uk 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

In-Reply-To: <422EFC7F.9D48D181(a)tid.es> joaquin(a)tid.es (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Joaqu=EDn=20M=AA=20L=F3pez=20Mu=F1oz?=) wrote (abridged): > Oh, sorry, I misread it. I agree with you hashing a bool makes little > sense, and agree that it probably shouldn't be made part of the public > interface (for the same reasons, for instance, that there's no overload > for char.) Is that because bools and chars will be promoted to ints? I can imagine wanting bools and chars to hash differently, to take advantage of their special properties. Then hash_value('\0') could be different to hash_value(0), which wouldn't bother me because they are different types. However I can understand if this is felt too risky for general use. -- Dave Harris, Nottingham, UK

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Re: [review] hash functions
by Jaap Suter 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

I would like to second the following: "1. The overloads of hash_value for STL containers forces the implementation to include <vector>, <list>, etc., which makes the header a little heavier than desired." I'd say it's not a 'little' heavier but a lot heavier. Can we not put the extensions in their own header files; vector_hash.hpp or something? Not everybody has all these containers in a precompiled header already. Thanks, Jaap Suter

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Logo Contest Current Tally
by Joel de Guzman 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

Hi, You can see the latest logo contest tally here: http://boost.org/more/logo_contest_tally.htm As of March 7, 2005: Votes Entry 6 38, Simeon Nasilowski 5 67, Simeon Nasilowski 4 39, Simeon Nasilowski 4 75, Zoltan "cad" Juhasz 3 83, Emil Kirichev 3 85, Ben Hetland 3 92, Aleksey Gurtovoy 2 18, Boost 2 Jonathan Turkanis 2 52, Zoltan "cad" Juhasz 2 60, Banu Alexandru 2 68, Aleksey Gurtovoy 1 1, Boost 1 13, René Rivera 1 20, Jonathan Turkanis 1 23, Jonathan Turkanis 1 29, Erik Wien 1 3, Joaquín M López Muñoz 1 30, Erik Wien 1 62, Mike H 1 97, Jonathan Turkanis 1 18, Jonathan Turkanis Regards, -- Joel de Guzman http://www.boost-consulting.com http://spirit.sf.net

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Re: [boost] Re: RPC library
by Iain Hanson 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 22:28 +0000, Jarl Lindrud wrote: > Iain Hanson <Iain.Hanson <at> videonetworks.com> writes: > > [snip] > You're making my point for me. For something quick and dirty, who is going to > want to type all that out? And before I do, I have to learn about IDL, _var > types, safe downcasts, factories, CORBA::string's, etc, while in the back of my > mind there's the nagging suspicion that I've missed some subtle detail > somewhere. I hardly find 5 lines of code onerous. And it is easy to wrap up part of it in a template. Quick and dirty may be something you do to learn how to do something. But AFAIK, not something we create boost libraries for. IDL is what gives you type safety, something we usually appreciate in C++. > And whoever will be looking at my code needs to learn these things as > well. This is something that never fails to amaze me. Building distributed systems is hard to do correctly. It is very similar to the difficulty with threaded systems but the issues are subtly different and I think harder in distributed systems. If you can't learn a few conventions in half a day, then you probably have no business trying to build such systems. I probably spend half of my working life fixing systems that have been quickly hacked and then put into production. CORBA /EJB both have marketed themselves as the easy and safe way to write distributed systems and they are not. They are easy to write bad systems in. What you are proposing is an easier way to write even worse systems. > I also have to modify the build process to handle the IDL files, and then > find an ORB to build and link to. None of this is difficult, but I personally > find it rather cumbersome, and above all, for my situation it's just plain > unnecessary. All I wanted to do was to make a couple of remote calls between two > C++ programs! Something along these lines seems to me much more proportional to > the task at hand: You already have to link to the serialization library that you have had to build. I don't understand the difference. And your user needs to understand the trade-offs with each archive format. > > // server > > RCF_BEGIN(I_Echo, "I_Echo") > RCF_METHOD_R1(std::string, echo, std::string); > RCF_END(I_X); > > struct Echo > { > void std::string echo(std::string s) { return s; } > }; > > int main() > { > RCF::RcfServer server(50001); > server.bind<I_Echo,Echo>(); > server.start(); > return 0; > } > > // client > > RCF_BEGIN(I_Echo, "I_Echo") > RCF_METHOD_R1(std::string, echo, std::string); > RCF_END(I_Echo); > > int main() > { > std::cout << RcfClient<I_Echo>("localhost", 50001).echo("ho hum"); > return 0; > } > Your client has 4 lines of code to my 5 and you have macros in your interface. Not normally considered a good thing. And you have hard coded the server location. Always considered a bad thing in anything but toy code. [snip] > I guess the argument boils down to this: does anyone write network applications > for which CORBA-style scaleability is not a requirement? I would think so, but > maybe I'm wrong. > There are low level systems that need to work with sockets. The IETF has made a pretty good job of making the internet protocols scale. And there are hard and soft real time projects that need to use sockets. There are probably a lot of applications that have been built using sockets that should have used CORBA. Cost has historically been a big issue with CORBA because commercial implementations have typically ( in the U.K. ) cost of the order of £3,500 per developer a year and £2,500 per user a year run time. > RPC's don't scale too well, we both agree on that. But why do you think all > applications need to scale? If I'm prototyping something, then the last thing in > the world I need is scaleability, and I certainly wouldn't want the development > cluttered and slowed because someone has decreed that we must all use CORBA > because it scales so well. > If you are just playing around then I don't have a problem. But I don't think boost is in the habit of adopting toys. The problem with over simplified solutions is that a prototype is built, the boss asks for a few extra features, and before you know it, its rolled out to production and know one will pay for it to be re-written properly :-(. > Your position seems to be that programmers should not be afforded the option of > choosing; they should just bite the bullet and always use CORBA. If they don't > like that, then they should just avoid networking altogether. Personally I tend to prefer not letting programmers shoot themselves in the foot, if I can avoid it. Unfortunately, they ( and I sometimes ) are incredibly inventive at finding new ways to do so ;-). /ikh

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N-arity operators in C++, also reducing temporaries. [Repost]
by Pavel Chikulaev 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

This text not as silly as my "Herb Sutter's operator = can be optimized", so please read it. I'm currently working on library "Lazy" which eases creation of classes which needs lazy evalution and n-arity operators to improve speed. The library's sample usage placed below. Please let me know what do you think about it. I'll appreciate any feedback on my library. Library description: Library eases creation of classes which needs lazy evalution and n-arity operators. Library features are: * n-arity operators support; * operator aliasing, such as a + -b will be computed as a - b; * custom operators; * no unnecessary temporaries during evalution and assigning. Library's sample usage: //Matrix.h #include "lazy.hpp" class transpose_tag {}; //Tag class class Matrix { LAZY_CLASS(Matrix) static lazy::type<Matrix> Matrix_; //Similar to Andrei Alexandrescu's Type2Type template public: Matrix(); Matrix(const Matrix &); Matrix & operator = (const Matrix &); void swap(void Matrix &); //Libray won't work without swap function. //If name of your swap function isn't swap then use //LAZY_CLASS_EX(Matrix, YourSwapFunctionName) //lazy constuctors which enables lazy operators Matrix(LAZY_OP(Matix_ + Matrix_)); //Matrix operator +(Matrix, Matrix) Matrix(LAZY_OP(Matrix_ * Matrix_)); //... Matrix(LAZY_OP(-Matrix_); Matrix(LAZY_OP(Matrix_ + Matrix_ * Matrix_)); //ternary operator //Now enable operators LAZY_ENABLE_OP(Matrix_ = Matrix_ + Matrix_); LAZY_ENABLE_OP(Matrix_ = Matrix_ * Matrix_); LAZY_ENABLE_OP(Matrix_ = -Matrix_); LAZY_ENABLE_OP(Matrix_ = Matrix_ + Matrix_ * Matrix_); //operator aliasing LAZY_ALIAS(Matrix + -Matrix_ = Matrix_ - Matrix_); //Custom operation Matrix(LAZY_CUSTOM_OP(transpose_tag, (Matrix_))); LAZY_ENABLE_CUSTOM_OP(transpose, Matrix_ = lazy::custom_op<transpose_tag>(Matrix_)); //same as Matrix transpose (const Matrix &) but there //won't be any temporary objects at all }; //Matrix.cpp Matrix::Matrix(LAZY_OP(Matix_ + Matrix_) op) { //Construct matrix object //lhs matrix = op._1 //rhs matrix = op._2 } Matrix::Matrix(LAZY_CUSTOM_OP(transpose_tag, (Matrix_) op) { //Construct matrix object tranposed to op._1 } //etc //Now the use of Matrix class Matrix a, b, c, d; //... a = b + c; //No tempories at all //Using normal practice it will take two temporary objects (no NRVO or RVO ) a = b + -c; //Will be evaluates as a = b - c; No temporaries again //Using normal practice it will take three temporary objects (no NRVO or RVO) a = b + c * d; //Will use ternary operator. No temporaries again a = transpose(b); //Custom lazy operation. No tempories again Maybe the library is very similar to uBLAS's matrix_expression and vector_expression. But with my approach there is no need to code matrix_expression and vector_expression at all and it is easy to create new classes which needs lazy evaluation and n-arity operators. I believe that my library should be very useful with big_int. So what do you think? Is there any similar approaches available? Is there any need of such library? Thanks in advance. -- Pavel Chikulaev

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Herb Sutter's Assignment operator can be optimized + Proposal for very small boost utility library
by Pavel Chikulaev 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

Hi, Do you know that well-known Herb Sutter's assignment operator in most cases does unnecessary copying? No? Then read it to learn how to elminate it. class Matrix { //.... Matrix& operator = (const Matrix& that) { Matrixtemp(that); swap(temp); return *this; } //... }; Consider first example: Matrixa, b; //.... a = b; Here Herb Sutter's operator = works just fine. But consider second example: Matrix func (); Matrix a; //... Matrix = func(); Result of func() is copied to temporary objectand then operator = copies it again. So assigning to result of function creates one useless object. Elminating of temporary int object will cost nothing, but elminating of temporary std::vector of 10000 elements will cost a lot. But how can we define that copying is necessary? - Every function returns object not of type T but temporary object of type T. So let's code something: template<typename T> struct temporary : T { temporary() {} temporary(const T & t) : T(t) {} //some operators and constructors to create base object in-place not listed here }; Now let's change function consider operator +: Matrix operator + (const Matrix & a, const Matrix & b) { Matrix temp(a); temp += b; return temp; } To optimize it we do the following: temporary<Matrix> operator + (const Matrix & a, const Matrix & b) { Matrix temp(a); temp += b; return temp; } Maybe it can be hardly optimized using NRVO, so let's help the complier rewriting as following: temporary<Matrix> operator + (const Matrix & a, const Matrix & b) { temporary<Matrix> temp(a); temp += b; return temp; } By now, even returning temporary<Matrix> instead of Matrix, no optimization is done. To enable the optimization we need to change the class Matrix by adding one more assignment operator : Matrix & operator = (const temporary<Matrix> & that) { swap (const_cast<Matrix &>(static_cast<const Matrix &>(that))); return *this; } or using "deprecated" casts Matrix & operator = (const temporary<Matrix> & that) { swap ((Matrix &) that); return *this; } By now we've elminated unnecassary copying. Is this worth being called Pavel Chikulaev's temporary assignment operator? Is this worth being included in Boost? By including temporary.hpp, adding one operator in class, and replacing each function result to explicitly marked temporary you get really a lot. My temporary assignment operator as safe as Herb Sutter's. Maybe returing temporary<T> will make some obstacles to templated programming, so i'm going to add temporary_traits: is_temporary, add_temporary, remove_temporary. Some changes of BOOST_TYPEOF will be also needed. So, what do you think? Copyright 2005 Pavel Chikulaev. Use, modification, and distribution are subject to the Boost Software License, Version 1.0

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Sockets
by Boris 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

There hasn't been much talk about a socket library recently. The Wiki stuff about sockets is quite old so I don't know if Hugo is still working on it? It's some time ago I added some proposals for a multiplexing library to the Wiki. So I went through most of the Wiki pages of Boost.Socket and Multiplexing and tried to gather and sort the ideas a bit. As I don't want to go even more into details by adding more C++ code I tried a top-down-approach using UML diagrams. Without sorting the ideas and getting a big picture we are stuck in the details and don't proceed. The network API isn't small, there are many different goals to reach and the network library might overlap with other libraries - quite a lot to do. :-) So here is the next small step: http://www.crystalclearsoftware.com/cgi-bin/boost_wiki/wiki.pl?BoostNet As usual any comments are appreciated, Boris

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Boost 1.32.0 and VS.NET 2005 under AMD64
by p.klotz＠icoserve.com 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

Hi I have sent a mail about this topic to boost-users a few weeks ago but got no response. There exist a few problems when trying to compile Boost 1.32.0 under AMD64 with VS.NET 2005: * No toolset exists to compile Boost 1.32.0 native on the AMD64 platform (no cross compile). The attached file vc-8_0-amd64-tools.jam fixes that. * InterlockedExchange() in line 44 of lwm_win32.hpp collides with a macro of the same name in WinBase.h One finds in WinBase.h: #elif defined(_M_AMD64) && !defined(RC_INVOKED) ... #define InterlockedExchange _InterlockedExchange I changed the name of Boost's function to InterlockedExchangeBoost() to avoid this problem. * No type long_type exists when compiling with the Microsoft Compiler. The 64Bit part in lwm_win32.hpp seems to have been written for the Intel Compiler. An additional #ifdef now checks if the 64Bit compiler is from Intel or Microsoft. The InterlockedExchange() and long_type issues are fixed by boost_1_32_0-AMD64.patch. Maybe these changes can be integrated in some form in the next version of Boost. Best regards, Peter.

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Re: [boost] [1.33.0]: Some Moderation Please.
by Dave Gomboc 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

> Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2005 13:50:54 -0700 > From: "Victor A. Wagner Jr." <vawjr(a)rudbek.com> > > And I _hope_ what I put in the <hostile>...</hostile> was offensive, > it was intended to be. I'd hate to think that I'm accidently offensive > but can't be when I want to. Victor, please, quit while you're behind. Dave

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[testing] Possible changes to testing..
by Rene Rivera 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

All, I've been reading all the testing related post and not having time to respond to them. So I decided to talk about what might be done to improve things in one big posting. For along time now one of my objectives has been to use BuildBot (http://buildbot.sf.net/) to improve the management of running the regression tests. For those who don't feel like reading about that software here's a quick summary: It is a client-server based configuration where the test server controls the test clients telling them what to do for test. In this arrangement the client do not directly control what they are testing, nor how. All the clients provide is an execution environment for the testing. The server is configured to control the various clients as to what they test, including how to get the source, and when they test. The testing is change driven instead of time driven as we currently have. This means that each time a change occurs on the source (CVS in our case) the server decides to tell the clients to run tests. Because of this direct communication to the clients the server is able to give direct feedback as to what the testing is doing. This includes a live display of test progress, down to a dynamic view of the test log. Some of the issues and how this step might help. And other changes I've thought about might help.. *Reproducibility* BuildBot controls what the checkouts are and what triggered the build. You can see this by selecting one of the yellow "Build #" links on the BuildBot display. If there's ever a question about what code produced an error one can get the specific version of the tree to attempt reproduction. The history of what tests have run is kept. Which means that we can finally answer the dreaded "When did that start breaking?" question. *Scalability* One big change I'd like to see is the breakup of running tests to make it possible for testers to run tests on subsets of libraries, or even individual libraries. For example there might be some testers which have a special interest in a particular library, Boost.Python comes to mind. It would be ideal to make it possible for them to only run those tests, and to go through the extra steps of doing the Python setup. Also for some popular platforms, it becomes possible to get much faster response rates from testing if, for example, we partition the library testing space throughout those platforms and they would test the libraries in parallel. For this to happen some significant organizational changes need to happen to the tests. As it currently stands such a division is not possible because of the way tests are defined and organized. We have a single test point, status/Jamfile, which a) points to the rest of the test points, libs/*/test/Jamfile, and b) defines it's own tests. The problem is that there is a conflict, for some libraries, between the tests defined in status/Jamfile, and the tests defined in libs/*/test/Jamfile. For example Boost.Config has a reduced set of test in status/Jamfile. This situation is likely a reaction to reduce test times to something manageable. And I understand that library authors would need to have a place to run their own set of comprehensive tests. My proposal is to create a set of canonical tests that comprise the regression testing suite independent of the library author's tests. This set of tests would be structured so that it's possible to run each libraries tests independent of others. It would be adding this type of structure: boost-root/tests/<library>/Jamfile boost-root/tests/<library>/<sub-library>/Jamfile boost-root/tests/<library>/<some-other-grouping>/Jamfile So for example a tester could say she only wants to test python/*, or numeric/ublas/*, etc. *Fragility* Simply put because BuildBot exposes the complete testing procedure it becomes much easier to see where problems occur in the testing. Also, because there is a central server managing the procedures it's more likely that problems can be solved at that one location instead of opaquely trying to fix the clients. With the, hopefully, additional distributed testers it becomes harder for testing to break down completely. Another aspect we need to address is fragility of the server. Ideally we would have multiple BuildBot servers to add redundancy. To make such a multi-server, multi-client setup resource efficient we would need to manage the distribution of testing between them. *Resources* The only predictable way to address the resource usage, is to distribute the testing so we can create more capacity. Breaking up the tests is the only way I can see to move there. It was already suggested that only slicing the testing to single toolsets would help. But that doesn't really address the problems. For example it would still be prohibitive for me to run tests on my G3 Mac for CW-8.3 because it's a slow machine and it would take days to run just one cycle of tests making the results useless. But it would be possible for me to run a minimal set of tests, for example Boost.Config and other basic tests. Restructuring also brings up the possibility of moderating the set of tests that make it into the regression suite. Right now we are in a position of asking library authors to define what the tests for the library. We can't moderate what gets into testing, or what needs go out. We need some procedure for reviewing tests, and some form of approval to get tests into the regression system. I'm not saying that authors would not be able to do additional testing, just that we need to define what the standard set of tests are so that we can concentrate our testing efforts. It would still be possible to set up additional resources to run "experimental" tests. *Response* The gain from segmentation and distribution of testing is hopefully obvious ;-) But another advantage of using BuildBot is that we are not tied to waiting for the XSLT processing to see results. Sure the results are not going to be as incredibly well organized as the Meta-Comm results but they are immediately available. So if there is a significant delay in the processing, because of load or breakage, we can still continue working. *Releases* Managing the testing for a release was brought up a many times. And it's clear that requiring testers to do manual changes is just not working. For BuildBot having the control of what is tested on the server means that at any point one, or some small number, person(s) can make the switch to have testing resources devoted to release testing. One possibility that the finner grain testing allows for is to limit the testing for a release to the required set of toolsets and platforms. OK, that's enough rambling... I know I haven't mentioned many other items raised, particularly about bjam and Boost.Build. I'll leave that for another post. I just need to get back to setting up the BuildBot server now ;-) -- -- Grafik - Don't Assume Anything -- Redshift Software, Inc. - http://redshift-software.com -- rrivera/acm.org - grafik/redshift-software.com - 102708583/icq

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RE: [boost] thread safety in boost date time
by Yitzhak Sapir 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

> From: Jeff Garland > > On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 11:34:15 +0200, Yitzhak Sapir wrote > > Boost date_time apparently has a thread safety problem in linux in > > that it calls localtime() in boost/date_time/time_clock.hpp and > > related functions rather than localtime_r() and related functions. > > This is even though BOOST_HAS_PTHREADS is defined by configure in > > user.hpp. > > That's true -- date_time doesn't do anything to ensure thread > safety. I'm a little reluctant to protect these functions since the > user can determine better if they need to take the associated > performance hit. Of course this needs to be documented, which > it isn't now. Thoughts? Ok, having investigated the problem a little more, I get the following.. The problem comes down to the fact that localtime/gmtime call tzset(), which in turn calls getenv("TZ"). This call isn't done in the _r versions which use pretty much the same code. getenv() appears to be not thread safe, but I'm not sure why. This does indicate, however, that probably the _r versions are a little quicker (because they don't call getenv()). Running localtime (no _r) in loops in four threads on a multi cpu machine resulted in no segmentation fault. Maybe something else is interfering with getenv() in unforseeable ways? boost is not the only one making these calls. log4cxx is another third party we use and it also makes these calls. It also calls wcsftime, a version of strftime, which appears to always call tzset()/getenv(). So, wcsftime/strftime appear to be not threadsafe either. For the record, we use libgcc 3.3.3 and glibc 3.2.3. The libgcc is a by product of compiling an equivalent gcc on all machines for distcc purposes, while the glibc is the version that was installed with the operating system. I am wondering if this version mismatch could be the cause of the problems, but it seems the getenv.c hasn't changed in glibc for 2 years. A link to an example posting about a problem that seems very similar: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-glibc/2002-11/msg00092.html If it is to be documented and not fixed, it should probably be documented in a central place for all boost. (This is a good idea regardless). I think it should be fixed, given that the main difference is using a static buffer vs a stack allocated buffer and that the current version does more work (damage?) than the reentrant version. Yitzhak Sapir

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copy_if, composition, and proper predicate
by Michael Goldshteyn 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Given: // Definitions class Element { public: const std::string &GetTag() const; }; typedef std::vector<Element> ElementContainer; // Now here is what is required ElementContainer elements; ... ElementContainer matchingElements; std::string matchingTag("abc"); copy_if(elements.begin(),elements.end(),back_inserter(matchingElements)),pred); -- What is pred? Assuming that iElements represents the iterator inside copy_if, pred should be something like: iElements->GetTag()==matchingTag I could go about this by creating a new function object class/struct, which takes matchingTag as its sole constructor argument and does the comparison inside operator(). But, I want to use in place composition using binders, etc... to create the pred, so as not to have to create a function object class/struct. The question is, "What piece of code should pred be?" // Almost does the right thing, but it's only *iElements==matchingTag, I need iElements->GetTag()==matchingTag bind_2nd(equal_to,matchingTag) This seems like a very common operation. How can I compose the predicate, in place to do this? If there are multiple solutions, I would like to hear them as well! Thanks, Michael

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Archive stuck
by Gennadiy Rozental 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Sorry I know I was given direct address. But I couldn't locate it for some reason. Gennadiy

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Re: [boost] Re: What I Hate About How We Abstract System Dependence
by brangdon＠cix.compulink.co.uk 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

In-Reply-To: <422D79A6.4050502(a)aaronwl.com> aaronrabiddog51(a)aaronwl.com (Aaron W. LaFramboise) wrote (abridged): > > I have always thought that concrete implementations of portable > > libraries should supply users a way to get at the OS-specific data so > > they can use platform-specific facilities on them if neccessary. > [...] > It seems to me that, by doing this, we are throwing away so many > correctness guarantees. To me, this seems sort of like taking > shared_ptr, and making it implicitly convertable to a pointer. Surely it's more like taking shared_ptr and giving it an explicit get() function? You can break invariants by doing stuff like: delete p.get(); but people are unlikely to do that by accident. Access to the underlying raw pointer is essential for inter-operating with software which isn't smart-pointer aware. So it is with OS handles. -- Dave Harris, Nottingham, UK

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Re: [boost] Re: What I Hate About How We Abstract System Dependence
by brangdon＠cix.compulink.co.uk 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

In-Reply-To: <loom.20050308T013051-569(a)post.gmane.org> belvis(a)pacbell.net (Bob Bell) wrote (abridged): > Another possibility is to provide another level of indirection. For > example, boost::thread can have an accessor which returns a > boost::platform_thread, which has the OS thread ID, plus member > functions which mimic OS operations not reflected in the portable > (boost::thread) API. The advantage of this approach is that > boost::platform_thread member functions may be able to preserve > invariants that otherwise might be broken if the user was allowed > to manipulate the underlying OS thread ID itself, and if the coverage > of the boost::platform_thread member functions is large enough, it > might not even be necessary to expose the OS thread ID at all. I don't think the coverage could never be large enough. We should always allow for 3rd parties which are not boost-aware, and which need to be passed low-level OS handles. -- Dave Harris, Nottingham, UK

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[iostreams] names for non-blocking character properties
by Jonathan Turkanis 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Hi All, Everybody likes naming questions, right? The thread "[iostreams] Major interface changes planned" discussed having the get() function return a type (basic_character, character or wcharacter) which can hold either a character, an EOF indication or an EAGAIN indication. My question is what I should call the functions which query the state of a basic_character. My first idea was to use bool good(character c) - returns true if c represents a character rather than EOF or EAGAIN bool eof(chacrater c) - returns true if c represent EOF bool fail(character c) - returns true if c represents EAGAIN. These functions have the same names as member functions of basic_ios. However, since fail() above doesn't mean exactly the same thing as basic_ios::fail(), I now think this is a bad idea. Here are the names I've thought of: good: good, is_good eof: eof, is_eof fail: fail, eagain, is_eagain, would_block, should_retry I also need names for the two functions called by implementations of get() to return characters representing EOF and EAGAIN. E.g., template<typename Source> character get(Source& src) { ... if ( ... ) return eof(); else return eagain(); } (They will actually return instances of types convertible to basic_character.) What do you think? Jonathan

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[shmem] New Shmem snapshot ready in Boost Files section
by Ion Gaztañaga 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Hello to all, I've just uploaded a new version of Shmem library (removed Boost from name because of the new naming policy) to Boost Files (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/files/) which includes built html help files. Snapshot file: Shmem.2005-03-06.tar.bz2. Changes and features from last version: -> Name changes. -> Improved compatibility with unordered_map/set family. Soon we will be able to place unordered containers in shared memory. Thanks, Daniel. -> Templatized index types for named shared memory object allocator -> New private segregated storage STL allocator for shared memory. -> Bug fixes -> Improved documentation and code comments. For the next version I plan to improve code comments, documentation and tests. Please, if there is any comment or suggestion, let me know. Regards, /Ion

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Is (void) still means ()? Is that syntax deprecated?
by Pavel Chikulaev 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

ISO/IEC 14882:1998(E) 8.3.5 (2) says: The parameter list (void) is equivalent to the empty parameter list. Is there any paper that shows that syntax (void) deprecated? I am asking about it because I'm trying to remove (void) syntax in Visual Studio's 2005 IDE Class View and Add Member Wizard. Is there any ideas how to remove it? P.S. As for me, It is really annoying.

1 0

[Boost.Regex] Not compiling without exceptions.
by larsbj＠gullik.net 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

In cpp_regex_traits.cpp line 76 there is a re-throw. This does not work when compiling without exceptions. I see that gcc have a #ifndef __EXCEPTIONS # define __throw_exception_again #else # define __throw_exception_again throw #endif for this case. Something similar should work for boost as well. To allow compiling I did this: --- ../../boost/boost/throw_exception.hpp 2004-08-05 17:24:43.000000000 +0200 +++ boost/throw_exception.hpp 2005-03-08 03:04:27.066704153 +0100 @@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ void throw_exception(std::exception const & e); // user defined +#define BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION_AGAIN + #else template<class E> inline void throw_exception(E const & e) @@ -39,6 +41,8 @@ throw e; } +#define BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION_AGAIN throw + #endif } // namespace boost -- Lgb

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Incredible Logos
by John Maddock 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

As someone who hasn't paid that much attention to the logos during their development, I have to say going to vote was a revelation - there were so many exceptionally high quality logos to choose from - all I can say is there's some really talented people on this list and whatever the result I think we're going to end up with an excellent new logo. Well done everyone! John.

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Re: What I Hate About How We Abstract System Dependence
by Chris Just 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Rob Stewart wrote: > Another possibility is to provide another level of indirection. For > example, boost::thread can have an accessor which returns a > boost::platform_thread, which has the OS thread ID, plus member functions > which mimic OS operations not reflected in the portable (boost::thread) API. > The advantage of this approach is that boost::platform_thread member > functions may be able to preserve invariants that otherwise might be broken > if the user was allowed to manipulate the underlying OS thread ID itself, and > if the coverage of the boost::platform_thread member functions is large > enough, it might not even be necessary to expose the OS thread ID at all. This is exactly what I would like to see. Boost::thread and other classes should be platform neutral, but provide a method to get at the private handles so that people can extend the class for specific platforms on their own. Another thing I would REALLY like to see is better documentation. I'd love to use more Boost classes, but I don't have time to reverse engineer them to figure out how they work. Chris. __________________________________ Celebrate Yahoo!'s 10th Birthday! Yahoo! Netrospective: 100 Moments of the Web http://birthday.yahoo.com/netrospective/

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My Thoughts on the Best Logos
by Rob Stewart 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

I decided to jump in with my ideas for the best logos and my comments on them. 1. 67 Simeon Nasilowski I liked this one because the checkerboard is abstract for several things: building blocks (Boost provides software building blocks), fitting the missing piece (Boost often provides just what you're missing), blended parts of C++ syntax (you can infer :: and }{, for example). I also liked that the checkerboard itself could be used as an icon, including in the address/location bar of the browser. What I don't like is the color scheme. I think a bluer scheme would be better. "C++ Libraries" could also be replaced with other tag lines like: - Setting the Standard - C++: The Next Generation (might be a copyright problem) - Your C++ 2. 83 Emil Kirichev I liked the color wheel, since it could be extracted as an icon and it suggests a never ending stream of libraries from Boost. I don't like the multiple colors; a simpler scheme would be better, I think. "C++ Library" should be plural, at the least, and could be replaced with numerous tag lines. 3. 49 Cristian Peraferrer Mayn? This logo looks really sharp and might have been my first choice, except for a couple of issues. I liked the coloring and the lettering. Since there is no accompanying graphic, it would be difficult to form an iconic version of this logo. The shading in the letters and the border requires a high number of colors; will it look as attactive with less color depth? 4. 21 Jonathan Turkanis I like the grayscale variant best, but the black works OK for lower color depths. There's too much gap between the "C" and "boost." It doesn't render well at low resolution, including as an icon. 5. 38 Simeon Nasilowski I like the "b" variant best. (I'm partial to the blue color palette, it seems.) The blocks can be used separately as an icon and there's always room to add a tag line (push "boost" up and put the tag line below as with #83). The foreground block could be adorned with a "C" yielding "C++," though that leaves the other, exposed surfaces with nothing. I don't know if that will look right or not. Adding a tag line would improve this one quite a bit. -- Rob Stewart stewart(a)sig.com Software Engineer http://www.sig.com Susquehanna International Group, LLP using std::disclaimer;

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Re: [boost] thread safety in boost date time
by Iain Hanson 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

On Tue, 2005-03-08 at 06:20 -0700, Jeff Garland wrote: > On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 14:48:00 +0200, Peter Dimov wrote > > Well I don't think just calling the _r function is enough to ensure the thread > safety of this code. I believe I would have to insert a lock in the date-time > code to make this assurance. > Yes it is. the _r versions require a user supplied buffer. So each caller supplying there own buffer is what makes them re-entrant. /ikh

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Re: [boost] Re: FSM Review
by Iain Hanson 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

On Mon, 2005-03-07 at 21:24 -0500, David Abrahams wrote: > "Iain K. Hanson" <ikh(a)hansons.demon.co.uk> writes: > > > On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 06:03:15PM -0500, David Abrahams wrote: > >> "Andreas Huber" <ahd6974-spamgroupstrap(a)yahoo.com> writes: > >> > > > > [snip] > > > >> > > >> > That depends on the functionality. I don't think it is possible if you > >> > want to provide support for orthogonal regions. > >> > >> Sorry, I don't really understand the concept. How are they different > >> from separate state machines? > > > > AFAICT nothing. State charts are always collapseable to state transition > > tables. > > This has something to do with STTs and State Charts? I'm lost. > Nothing else you say here helps clarify the concept of orthogonal > regions for me. No. Sorry, I should not have run the two together. orthogonal regions are also know as concurrent states. They are separate state machines running on separate threads. The other stuff was to give you an idea of what would be needed to support a state chart DSL and generator. /ikh

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