August 2005 - Boost - lists.boost.org

Re: [boost] Interest for a perl6-like-junctions-class?
by Rob Stewart 20 Aug '05

20 Aug '05

I uploaded some fixes to multivalues.zip: - Workaround for BCB's lack of EBO - Fixed some overzealous searches/replaces - Eliminated SFINAE from test program - Moved some tests out of the macros to assist in debugging, should anyone have problems with support in a particular compiler. Some questions: - What operator(s) should we use to delimit user-defined predicates? Here are some interesting candidates: if (any_of(...) << some_predicate() >> 5)... // 1 if (any_of(...) < some_predicate() > 5)... // 2 if (any_of(...) ^ some_predicate() ^ 5)... // 3 if (any_of(...) / some_predicate() / 5)... // 4 1 seems pretty good because the two-character operators stand out well. 2 works pretty well, but I'm concerned that the operators may get lost if the predicate is a specialization of a template type; the template argument list uses the same tokens. (1 is better in that case because of the doubled tokens.) 3 is an unusual operator to overload, so it is largely unique to this context. 4 works, but I'm concerned that it is gross misuse of the operator (overloading it for division and filesystem path manipulation are sensible; is this?). - Should we attempt VC6 support? If so, some functionality or syntax will have to be sacrificed. It may be that the iterator pair support is all that we must sacrifice. -- Rob Stewart stewart(a)sig.com Software Engineer http://www.sig.com Susquehanna International Group, LLP using std::disclaimer;

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[serialization]Boost.Serialization1.33.0BreaksSerializationCodeinDLLs
by Kim Barrett 20 Aug '05

20 Aug '05

I've been reading this thread with increasing alarm. I agree with Martin Ecker and Vladimir Prus that the synchronization in question belongs inside the serialization library. The system we are building will have several inter-process communication mechanisms, which I'm hoping to be able to build on top of Boost.Serialization. (As noted in another thread, I've run across some performance issues, which might be addressed by resetting and reusing archives, rather than constructing new archives all the time.) It is expected in our system design that it will be possible to dynamically load DLLs containing new types which support serialization, and then create new IPC connections (with associated archives) to/from which instances of those newly loaded types can be serialized. It is not a requirement that previously existing IPC connections (and their associated archives, either presently in use, or available for reuse if archive resetting is used) support these new types, since the type information for the connection is specified at connection creation time. We expect a substantial number of such connections to exist at any one time, with many threads involved, and they have some latency requirements. We presently plan to punt support for unloading DLLs, on the basis that the benefit (in our system) would be small compared to the design / implementation / documentation cost for supporting unloading safely and correctly. (We might revisit the decision about unloading, but for now supporting it is not a requirement for us.) I'm pretty sure that intertwining runtime DLL loading with all of our clients of the serialization library is just not going to fly. I think that making it a configuration option whether the library protects its internal data structures is a reasonable approach, since some applications won't need it (either because they are single-threaded or are willing to deal with the issues at the application level) and might not want to pay the cost. But for some applications, having the library be responsible for the consistency of its internal data structures is really the only realistic option. I think the only way I will be able to sell the use of the serialization library for our project is to either convince you to change on this issue, or to obtain or develop a patch and carry it forward. The latter might be less work in the long term than developing the subset of serialization features that we actually need, but the long-term maintenance headache for a patch is worrisome.

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Distributing subsets of Boost libraries
by Richard Hadsell 20 Aug '05

20 Aug '05

It is obvious that the Boost library collection is quite large and growing, and it probably will never decrease. It takes a long time to build the libraries that require building and to copy the headers from one place to another. It would be really nice for me (and for others, I suspect) to be able to request just the subset of libraries that I use. I would like the developers to think of a mechanism to break up the collection into subsets. Of course, there could be one subset that is common to all, and there could be other subsets that are common to a group of libraries. It would make sense to keep the number of subsets small by placing libraries with similar functionality or dependencies into a single subset. If you want to get fancy, you could include a library in multiple subsets. Whatever makes sense should be fine with most users. I just ask you to consider the desirability of restructuring the distributions. -- Dick Hadsell 914-259-6320 Fax: 914-259-6499 Reply-to: hadsell(a)blueskystudios.com Blue Sky Studios http://www.blueskystudios.com 44 South Broadway, White Plains, NY 10601

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Plans for 1.33.1?
by John Maddock 20 Aug '05

20 Aug '05

I notice that there are already a few patches that have gone into the RC_1_33_0 branch, presumably in expectation of a 1.33.1 release? So some questions: 1) Is the release branch now officially open again for patches: I assume that it is now that the release is out. 2) Is there any interest in either a hotfix patch-release or possibly a full 1.33.1 in 4 to 6 weeks time? If yes, then I believe we really need to start a readme file with a list of patches made - this would become the readme for the patch when it's released. Thoughts? John.

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Fall Review Schedule - version 2.0
by Tom Brinkman 20 Aug '05

20 Aug '05

Boost Fall Review Schedule - version 2.0 Contact Tom Brinkman at reportbase(a)gmail.com to request a review, to make updates to this document or to volunteer to be a review manager. The next library up for review is the xpressive library by Eric Niebler on September 8, 2005. It is available at http://boost-sandbox.sf.net/vault/index.php?directory=eric_niebler. This library still needs a review manager. Please contact me to volunteer. Following the review of the xpressive library is the TR1 library by John Maddock at john(a)johnmaddock.co.uk. The review is set for September 20, 2005. This library can be download at http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/index.php?&direction=0&order=&di…. This library needs a review manager volunteer also. Lets all make an effort to get more involved in the review processes this fall. I know the library authors would love to get more feedback. Check out the Boost::wiki page for New Libraries Under Construction at http://www.crystalclearsoftware.com/cgi-bin/boost_wiki/wiki.pl?LibrariesUnd… If your one of the libray's authors or active users, please feel free to make any changes to the libraries summary description. Click the question mark to add more detailed information about the library. Review Queue as of August 16, 2005. Confirmed: 1. xpressive - Eric Niebler (September 8, 2005) 2. TR1 - John Maddock (September 20, 2005) 3. logging - John Torjo (October 5, 2005) To be Confirmed: 4. singleton - Jason Hise (postponed) 5. function types - Tobias Schwinger (mini post-review needed) 6. output formatters - Reece Dunn (new review needed) 7. policy pointer - David B. Held 8. fixed strings - Reece Dunn 9. intrusive - Olaf Krzikalla 10. interfaces - Jonathan Turkanis 11. binary_int - Scott Schurr (ready to be reviewed) 1. xpressive Author: Eric Niebler eric(a)boost-consulting.com Review Manager: needed Download: http://boost-sandbox.sf.net/vault/index.php?directory=eric_niebler Docs: http://boost-sandbox.sf.net/libs/xpressive Review Date: September 8, 2005 xpressive is a TR1 regex work-alike that also accepts regexes as expression templates and lets regexes nest and call each other recursively. Significant changes since 0.9.3 - c_regex_traits to wrap the global C locale - null_regex_traits for searching non-char data - doc and test improvements - bugs in static regexes and Unicode support squashed You can consider this the xpressive 1.0 release candidate. All that remains is to add more tests and documentation, and perhaps a tweak to the traits interface. 2. TR1 Author - John Maddock john(a)johnmaddock.co.uk Review Manager - needed Download - http://boost-sandbox.sourceforge.net/vault/index.php?&direction=0&order=&di… Docs - in download file Review Date: September 20, 2005 (follows xpressive) The TR1 library provides an implementation of the C++ Technical Report on Standard Library Extensions. This library does not itself implement the TR1 components, rather it's a thin wrapper that will include your standard library's TR1 implementation (if it has one), otherwise it will include the Boost Library equivalents, and import them into namespace std::tr1. Functionality supported includes: Reference Wrappers, Smart Pointers, Class template result_of.,Function template mem_fn., Function Object Binders, Polymorphic function wrappers, Type Traits, Random Number Generators and Distributions, Tuples, Tuple Interface to std::pair, Fixed Size Array, Hash Function Objects, Regular Expressions, Complex Number Algorithm Overloads, Complex Number Additional Algorithms, Functionality in TR1 but not yet available in this implementation: Mathematical Special Functions, Unordered Associative Set (Hash Table), Unordered Associative Map (Hash Table), C99 C language additions. This library also makes changes to Boost.Config, and adds some new functionality to Boost.Math, reviewers should start with the readme.html in the root directory of the zip file. 3. logging Author - John Torjo john(a)torjo.com Review Manager - Hartmut.Kaiser Hartmut.Kaiser(a)gmail.com Download: http://torjo.com/code/logging.zip Docs: http://torjo.com/ Review Date: October 5, 2005 (follows TR1) The Boost Log Library is a small library, who: * makes it very easy to declare/define new logs * allows you very simple access to logs * allows for log hierarchies, and for modifying log hierarchies * allows for easy and efficient enabling/disabling of logs/log hierarchies * allows for easy manipulation of log behaviors (the log's destination(s) and/or adjusting the original message) * is thread-safe Using the library in code is easy and straightforward: int i = 1, j = 2, k = 3; BOOST_LOG(app) << "testing " << i << '-' << j << '-' << k << std::endl; BOOST_LOG(dbg) << "this is a debug message, i=" << i << std::endl; BOOST_LOG(info) << "I just wanted to tell you something...."; Recent Additions: - can be compiled as a static/dynamic runtime (works as a DLL as well) - removed dependency on boost_thread Note: I did not test this on Unix, but it should work. If anybody can take a look at detail/ts_posix.hpp, I'd appreciate it. - solved other small issues, based on feedback - slightly improved documentation 4) Singleton Author - Jason Hise chaos(a)ezequal.com Review Manager - Andreas Huber ahd6974-groups(a)yahoo.com Download: http://tinyurl.com/6qvrd (old version from previous review) Docs: http://tinyurl.com/6qvrd Review Date: Winter-2006 The singleton library provides multiple powerful methods of controlling the lifetimes of global resources. Client code can choose among the many provided methods of creation, or can easily write new creators for specialized initialization needs. Client code can additionally control precisely when a singleton instance is automatically created and destroyed, can create and destroy singleton instances explicitly any number of times, and can set up dependencies between singletons in an easy and natural way. Jason has stated that he will not be ready for the next review for a few months. 5) Function Types Author - Tobias Schwinger tschwinger(a)neoscientists.org Review Manager - John Maddock john(a)johnmaddock.co.uk Download: http://tinyurl.com/4oe7q (old version - from previous review) Docs: http://tinyurl.com/4oe7q Review Date: needed This library provides a metaprogramming facility to classify, decompose and synthesize function-, function pointer-, function reference- and member function pointer types. For the purpose of this documentation, these types are collectively referred to as function types (this differs from the standard definition and redefines the term from a programmer's perspective to refer to the most common types that involve functions). The classes introduced by this library shall conform to the concepts of the Boost Metaprogramming library (MPL). The Function Types library enables the user to: * test an arbitrary type for being a function type of specified kind, * inspect properties of function types, * view and modify sub types of an encapsulated function type with MPL Sequence operations, and * synthesize function types. This library supports variadic functions and can be configured to support non-default calling conventions. This library was reviewed June 2005 and was accepted pending a mini post-review. 6. Output formatters Author - Reece Dunn msclrhd(a)hotmail.com Review Manager - needed Download: needed Docs: needed Review Date: needed This library was reviewed september 11, 2004. It requires a second full review. 7. Policy Pointer Author - David B. Held dheld(a)codelogicconsulting.com Review Manager - Gennadiy gennadiy.rozental(a)thomson.com Download: Boost Sandbox under policy_ptr Docs: Boost Sandbox under policy_ptr Review Date: needed Smart pointers are used to automate memory management by handling the deletion of dynamically allcoated objects (and other resources). They assist in ensuring program correctness, exception safety, and memory integrity. Policy Pointer is a policy-based smart pointer framework designed to accomodate the large number of smart pointer designs. Through the use of policy classes, virtually any smart pointer type can be constructed within this framework. This library is a Boostification of the original Loki::SmartPtr type with significant modifications. 8. Fixed Strings Author - Reece Dunn msclrhd(a)hotmail.com Review Manager - Beman Dawes bdawes(a)acm.org Download: boosts-sandbox/boost/fixed_string Docs: boosts-sandbox/boost/fixed_string Review Date: needed The fixed string library provides buffer overrun protection for static sized strings (char s[ n ]). It provides a C-style string interface for compatibility with C code (for example, porting a C program to C++). There is also a std::string-style interface using a class based on flex_string by Andre Alexandrescu with a few limitations due to the non-resizable nature of the class. 9. Intrusive Author - Olaf Krzikalla krzikalla(a)gmx.de Review Manager - needed Download: http://people.freenet.de/turtle++/intrusive.zip Docs: http://people.freenet.de/turtle++/intrusive.zip Review Date: needed While intrusive containers were and are widely used in C, they became more and more forgotten in the C++-world due to the presence of the standard containers, which don't support intrusive techniques. Boost.Intrusive not only reintroduces this technique to C++, but also encapsulates the implementation in STL-like interfaces. Hence anyone familiar with standard containers can use intrusive containers with ease. 10. Interfaces Author - Jonathan Turkanis technews(a)kangaroologic.com Review Manager - needed Download: http://www.kangaroologic.com/interfaces Docs: http://www.kangaroologic.com/interfaces Review Date: needed "Boost.Interfaces provides a macro-based Interface Definition Language (IDL) which can be used to define C++ class types called interfaces. An interface is a lightweight value type associated with a set of named function signatures. An interface instance can be bound at runtime to any object which implements the interface, i.e., to any object of a type with accessible non-static member functions having the same name and signature as the set of functions associated with the interface. The functions of the bound object can then be invoked through the interface instance using the 'dot' operator. Binding is completely non-intrusive: the object's type need not declare any virtual functions or derive from any particluar base class. "Current applications of Boost.Interfaces include: * Non-intrusive dynamic polymorphism — interfaces can often be used in place of abstract base classes, and are sometimes much faster (see Performance). * Dynamic inheritance — allows function calls to be forwarded automatically to an object specified at runtime (see Delegation). * Smart Interface Pointers — smart pointers which can manage the lifetime of any object whose type implements a given interface. * Smart References — like smart interface pointers, but the managed object is accessed using the "dot" operator." 11. binary_int Author: Scott Schurr scott_schurr(a)credence.com Review Manager: pavel_vozenilek(a)hotmail.com Download: needed Docs: needed Review Date: October, 2005 (ready to be reviewed) The binary_int<> template allows the compile-time expression of integer binary literals. There is no run-time code overhead for using this template; all overhead is at compile time. I expect these binary literals to work any place that an integer literal would work at compile (not preprocessing) time. The template is designed to allow binary values up to 64-bits to be expressed, although it has only been tested up to 32-bits to date.

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Re: [boost] (Vector) norm functions?
by Michael Stevens 19 Aug '05

19 Aug '05

On Friday 19 August 2005 17:48, Neal Becker <ndbecker2(a)gmail.com> wrote: > David Abrahams wrote: > > > Daryle Walker <darylew(a)hotmail.com> writes: > > > >> Should we add functions to evaluate the various norms of a (numeric) > >> sequence? > > > > I'm fairly certain that functionality is in uBlas already. > > > > Yes, but just for ublas vector, not for generic sequences, right? True. But you can adapt many STL containers (such as std::vector) into a uBLAS Storage model which can be accessed as a vector. The overhead would not be great. Such adaptors would make an interesting addition to uBLAS -- ___________________________________ Michael Stevens Systems Engineering 34128 Kassel, Germany Navigation Systems, Estimation and Bayesian Filtering http://bayesclasses.sf.net ___________________________________

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Missing archives? Early releases.
by Daryle Walker 19 Aug '05

19 Aug '05

Looking at <http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/>, some of the early months are missing: March 2000, February 2000, March 1999, January 1999, and anything on or before October 1998 (if any). I was looking for information on early releases. I saw an article from Beman on 1999-12-30 about v1.10.3, claiming that it was the first numbered release. And that he keeps backups of the old site. I wonder if he could find versions of Boost before 1.11.2 (that's the earliest I found in CVS). -- Daryle Walker Mac, Internet, and Video Game Junkie darylew AT hotmail DOT com

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Boost regression notification (2005-08-19)
by Douglas Gregor 19 Aug '05

19 Aug '05

Boost regression test failures ------------------------------ Report time: 2005-08-19T15:45:26Z This report lists all regression test failures on release platforms. Detailed report: http://engineering.meta-comm.com/boost-regression/CVS-HEAD/developer/issues… 64 failures in 6 libraries: graph (11) iostreams (3) parameter (9) python (20) serialization (20) wave (1) |graph| graphviz_test: gcc-3.2.3-linux gcc-3.3.6-linux gcc-3.3.6-linux gcc-3.4.4-linux gcc-3.4.4-linux gcc-3_4_3-sunos gcc-4.0.1-linux mingw-3_4_2 vc-7_1 vc-7_1 vc-7_1 |iostreams| bzip2_test: mingw-3_4_2 gzip_test: mingw-3_4_2 zlib_test: mingw-3_4_2 |parameter| basics: borland-5_6_4 macros: borland-5_6_4 sfinae: borland-5_6_4 unnamed: borland-5_6_4 cw-9_4 intel-win32-8_1 msvc vc-6_5 vc-6_5-stlport |python| exec: cw-8_3 gcc-2.95.3-linux gcc-2.95.3-stlport-4.6.2-linux gcc-3.2.3-linux gcc-3.3.6-linux gcc-3.3.6-linux gcc-3.4.4-linux gcc-3.4.4-linux gcc-3_4_3-sunos gcc-4.0.1-linux intel-win32-9_0 intel-win32-9_0 mingw-3_4_2 msvc vc-6_5 vc-6_5-stlport vc-7_0 vc-7_1 vc-7_1 vc-7_1 |serialization| test_class_info_load_binary_archive: cw-9_5-darwin gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_binary_archive_dll: cw-9_5-darwin gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_text_archive: gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_text_archive_dll: gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_text_warchive: gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_text_warchive_dll: gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_xml_archive: cw-9_5-darwin gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_xml_archive_dll: cw-9_5-darwin gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_xml_warchive: gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_class_info_load_xml_warchive_dll: gcc-3_4_3-sunos test_const_save_fail1: msvc test_const_save_fail2: msvc test_const_save_fail3: msvc test_map_binary_archive_dll: msvc test_map_text_archive_dll: msvc test_map_text_warchive_dll: msvc |wave| testwave: gcc-3.3.6-linux

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OpenOffice is using Boost
by Fredrik Blomqvist 19 Aug '05

19 Aug '05

Hi, I recently browsed the OpenOffice source and noticed that it uses Boost. This seems like an excellent candidate to promote. Btw, when I look at the other entries in the users lists, I get the feeling that a lot of companies where "boosters" work must be missing? Obvious examples would be MetaCommunications (Aleksey) and I guess/assume also ReadSoft (Björn Karlsson) and Housemarque (Vesa). I guess it's up to the respective indivuduals to decide on this though, just wanted to remind :) Regards // Fredrik Blomqvist

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Rational Discovery is using Boost
by Greg Landrum 19 Aug '05

19 Aug '05

I somehow have kept forgetting to submit this: Company: Rational Discovery LLC Rational Discovery provides computational modeling, combinatorial library design and custom software development services to the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical industries. We do a substantial amount of internal research to develop new approaches for applying machine-learning techniques to solve chemical problems. Because we're a small organization and chemistry is a large and complex field, it is essential that we be able to quickly and easily prototype and test new algorithms. We have found the Boost libraries, a reliable source of high-quality code, to be indispensable. Libraries used: python, graph, smart_ptr, any, lexical_cast, random, string_algo, tuple, uBLAS, URL: http://www.rationaldiscovery.com Parts of this blurb were taking the "who's using Boost.Python" page. Best Regards, -greg

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