July 2008 - Boost - lists.boost.org

boost versus Apple's gcc 4.2
by Mat Marcus 31 Jul '08

31 Jul '08

On the boost users list, there was a discussion about some issues arising with boost versus gcc-4.2 on Apple systems. One interesting issue arises from the fact that Apple decoupled the gcc compiler version from the lib version. They "own" libstdc++, which they've kept at version 4.0 even when the 4.2 compiler. This breaks some assumptions in boost headers. I am reposting on the main developer list: ### Peter Dimov wrote: > Is the new Apple GCC documented somewhere? I wasn't able to find anything > related to a new assembler syntax or -fasm-blocks. Can you ask Apple to > explain the issue? Stock g++ 4.2.x compiles the code, so the problem must be > Apple-specific. Ok, I've got a little bit more information on the Apple gcc 4.2 situation. Here is a snippet from an email dialog between a user and an apple compiler engineer: user appears below with with prefix ">>" apple compiler engineer appears below with with prefix ">" >> Thank you very much for the detailed reply. >> Based on your information I deduce: >> >> 1) Using gcc 4.2 with 4.0 (c++) libraries is a supported >> configuration by Apple > > Right. > >> I then conclude that the C++ ABI is fully compatible between 4.0 and >> 4.2 > > Right. [snip, then user hypothesizes as to why there are problems with boost under gcc 4.2/libstdc++ 4.0 on current Apple systems] >> This is the case because boost assumes that a 4.2 compiler implies >> 4.2 libraries in flies such as boost/detail/atomic_count_gcc.hpp: >> >> #if (__GNUC__ > 4) || ((__GNUC__ == 4) && (__GNUC_MINOR__ >= 2)) >> # include <ext/atomicity.h> >> #else >> # include <bits/atomicity.h> >> #endif > > Yes, this is a bug or faulty assumption in boost. [snip] > The 4.2 library issue is a bug in Boost, not a problem with > our compiler. I'd suggest raising the issue on one of the boost > mailing lists and see what they say. Comments? Mat

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[1.36 beta] Beta release candidate available
by Beman Dawes 31 Jul '08

31 Jul '08

Release candidate tarballs for the 1.36 beta are available at http://boost.cowic.de/rc/ Special thanks to Daniel James for generating the docs. Hopefully we can get the doc generations problems fixed quickly so that we can get back on a nightly release snapshot generation running again. I'd like to get feedback before uploading these to SourceForge. Please post a reply indicating success or problems encountered, being sure to indicate your platform and which file you downloaded. Thanks, --Beman

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The --toolset option
by Vladimir Prus 31 Jul '08

31 Jul '08

Okay, now it's my turn to propose something to sneak into 1.36.0 at the last minute. Fortunately, it's only documentation change. For quite a while, both getting-started, and bjam --help mentioned --toolset option. This in practice, resulted in folks getting wrong analogy and trying to use --variant=debug --link=shared, etc. We agreed (on Boost.Build list), in principle, that we better remove --toolset from documentation, and use 'toolset=' instead -- which has exactly the same effect. So, I would like to commit the following Jamroot change to HEAD and merge to release branch. Any objections? I also would like to see the issue filed against getting-started: http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/2050 fixed, and can provide a patch assuming release manager is fine with having this doc tweak merged into release branch, too. Opinions? Thanks, Volodya

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range_ex: status?
by Mathias Gaunard 31 Jul '08

31 Jul '08

I'm writing some piece of software working that does a lot of data structures traversal and that really needed filtering of traversal etc. I thought I'd get that from Boost.Range, but I was surprised to see Boost.Range provides very little: all the good stuff (the range-based algorithms and adaptors) are in another library, range_ex, which isn't in the main distribution yet. Will this library be included in Boost soon? It's really great. As for the open issues, here are my opinions: - Output ranges: don't adaptors already output ranges? - Two input ranges, or a range and an iterator?: two ranges can do more - For any algorithm foo(container, args...), if foo(args...) is valid then it should be called - Null-termination of C-style strings: Isn't that up to Boost.Range to decide whether it's a range or not?

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add new category in libs/libraries.htm
by Emil Dotchevski 30 Jul '08

30 Jul '08

Any opinions on adding a new category in libs/libraries.htm, Error Reporting, containing static_assert and the exception lib? Emil Dotchevski Reverge Studios, Inc. http://www.revergestudios.com/reblog/index.php?n=ReCode

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[getting started][1.36] Please rebuild and merge.
by Daniel James 30 Jul '08

30 Jul '08

Please can somebody rebuild the getting started guide in trunk? Beman, is it be okay to merge this into the release branch? I've only updated the version numbers: http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/47870/ I've also added a note to the release procedure wiki pages so hopefully this won't be missed in the future. thanks, Daniel

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[hash] Broken link in docs
by John Maddock 30 Jul '08

30 Jul '08

While building the docs in /doc/ I see: Writing unordered/buckets.html for section(unordered.buckets) ID recommended on table: Methods for accessing the hash and equal... Writing unordered/hash_equality.html for section(unordered.hash_equality) ID recommended on table: Interface differences. Error: no ID for constraint linkend: unordered.rationale.equality_operator. ID recommended on table: Complexity Guarantees Writing unordered/comparison.html for section(unordered.comparison) Writing unordered/rationale.html for section(unordered.rationale) Looks like a broken link? John.

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remove_pointer and pointers to members?
by John Maddock 29 Jul '08

29 Jul '08

Folks, I'm trying to decide how to fix this bug report: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/2011 Basically what should: remove_pointer<int (foo::*)>::type be? Should it produce an int, or have no effect? TR1 explicitly says that it has no effect, so I guess I vote to stick with that behaviour. In which case, anyone object to a remove_member_pointer trait that transforms: int (foo::*) --> int int (foo::*)(double) --> int (double) etc. It's also tempting to add a "member_object" trait at the same time that transforms: int (foo::*) --> foo int (foo::*)(double) --> foo thoughts? Thanks, John.

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Test machines available
by Ruediger Berlich 29 Jul '08

29 Jul '08

Hi there, I was wondering whether there would be a need for additional systems for automated, nightly builds. My employer would agree to make a few (3-4) machines available, with Linux-based operating systems. This would be a VMWare ESX-based setup, although on high-performance hardware (8-core blades). I would personally be most interested in a test environment with the OpenSUSE 11 64 bit / g++ 4.3.1 combo. It might be possible to also have an OpenSolaris/Intel installation there, or an installation with Intel's C++ compiler. A pre-condition would be that no external access to the machines is needed, i.e. it would not be possible for Boost members to log in. Instead, I would set up the test environment as needed, and of course it would be possible for these machines to contact the outside world and transmit test results. Thus my question, what needs to be done to set up such a test environment. Note that I cannot give a guaranty for long-term availability, as a) I do not know how much work is involved in running such an environment and b) it might become necessary for the systems to be used in other contexts. If this turns out to be pretty much self-hosting (i.e. the build-environment is self-sustained on a normally configured Linux system), I would aim to ensure that the systems are available for a longer period. Best Regards, Ruediger /*************************************************************************/ The Steinbuch Centre for Computing of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (the Cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universitaet Karlsruhe TH) will run its annual GridKa School from September 8th to 12th, 2008. Please find further information at http://www.fzk.de/gks08 . /*************************************************************************/ Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH Sitz: Weberstraße 5 76133 Karlsruhe Amtsgericht Mannheim HRB 100302 Vorsitzende des Aufsichtsrats: Baerbel Brumme-Bothe Vors. der Geschäftsführung: Prof. Dr. Eberhard Umbach

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[1.37] When this will start?
by vicente.botet 29 Jul '08

29 Jul '08

Hi, Release 1.36 will have soon 2 weeks behind schedule. In order to maintain a quarterly release, when do you plan to start the 1.37 release? IMO it is time to start with it (1/08/2008), but without a named branch by release this is impossible. Could you share with us which is the plan to avoid that the quarterly release become a wish? Vicente

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