March 2005 - Boost - lists.boost.org

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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boost/operators.hpp remarks
by Sylvain Pion 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Hi, I have been using boost/operators.hpp recently, and found it quite good at removing lines of code from my maintainance area :) I have some remarks about it : 1/ The mixed operators are only provided if you know the type in advance and it is fixed. For example, it is not possible for example to mix with a template family of types. E.g. let's say that My_type has to provide mixed operators with all types X<U>. This is not possible to do with the current library. Another related thing is how to express "I want My_type to mix with all integral types". Maybe there could be a version of the operators that uses enable_if and tr1::is_integral somehow, for this purpose ? Just a thought. 2/ I think it is "Euclidean Ring", not "Euclidian Ring" ("e" instead of "i"), hence the names for euclidian_ring_operators<T> and similar, are unfortunate. -- Sylvain

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thread safety in boost date time
by Yitzhak Sapir 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

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. Yitzhak Sapir

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casp.hpp workaround and more
by Gennadiy Rozental 07 Mar '05

07 Mar '05

1. Shouldn't this header use workaround from config/suffix.hpp instead of BOOST_EXPLICIT_DEFAULT_TARGET? 2. Shouldn't this header be split by ..._cast? 3. Doesn't numeric_cast facility shouldn't be deprecated? Genandiy

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RPC library
by Jarl Lindrud 07 Mar '05

07 Mar '05

Hi all, I've searched this list a bit and found a few mentions of rpc's (Remote Procedure Call), but nothing concrete. I've written a library for doing portable C++ RPC's, which can be downloaded at http://www.codeproject.com/threads/RMI_For_Cpp.asp Is there any interest in Boost for something like this, and if so in what directions do you all think it should be developed? Thanks! Jarl.

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Re: [boost] Re: Logo Contest Current Tally
by JOAQUIN LOPEZ MU?Z 07 Mar '05

07 Mar '05

----- Mensaje original ----- De: David Abrahams <dave(a)boost-consulting.com> [...] > Well, now Joel and Jeff Garland have both told me by private mail that > there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with having a discussion about > what's worth voting for, and I am basically convinced. I think > certainaspects of the logo are more important than others and > should be > considered. But before I start blurting out any specifics, let's hear > from the group. Is there any reason we shouldn't talk about how to > choose? We do almost everything at boost by public consensus. Why > not this time? Well, I don't have any strong opinion about whether this poll should be kept in privacy or not, but certainly there is a difference between the contest and other activities: the former is a voting process, unlike all other decisions taken here (including reviews.) Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigacion y Desarrollo

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