July 2009 - Boost - lists.boost.org

Interest check: Boost.Mock
by Peter Bindels 26 Dec '09

26 Dec '09

Hi all, Over the past three-quarters of a year I've been working (with three friends) on a mocking framework for C++. In our vision, it would be a good complement to Boost.Test for testing classes separate from interfaces required - it would improve the ability to unit-test the classes that tie others together and that implement higher-level algorithms. It does this by creating an object that is "derived" from a given class at runtime, and replacing the functions with functions that redirect to verifying logic. The verifying logic uses basic structures to record expectations and to verify they happened. These ways of creating an object at runtime and modifying it are highly compiler dependant but remarkably portable - as it runs on at least 3 different compiler series (GCC, MSVC, EDG-based) and 5 platforms (Windows XP, Windows CE, Linux, QNX, bare platform), with few modifications. The library has been released under the name "Hippo Mocks" already. I'm interested in submitting it to Boost for three reasons. First of all, I believe that there may be obvious or very interesting optimizations or expansions I do not notice. Second, as Christian has elaborated on already, having the Boost tag on the project makes it more noticed and more used. As it has taken quite a bit of time from me already I would like people to use it. Third, Boost.Test allows testing code but does not support mocking. In the environment of unit testing, anything that is not a base library benefits from mocking by abstracting away details that are irrelevant and that will break your test unnecessarily. For Boost the main changes would be superficial in the naming and in using more default libraries instead of a new implementation. For Hippo Mocks I've decided to make no assumptions in anything over C++98 so there's a full Tuple implementation and so on. If there's an interest I'll spend the evening porting the code to qualify for the Boost coding norms and upload it to the vault (if I can - but that should be OK). I would like you to take a look at the code and tell me what you think of it. Thanks for your time. Kind regards, Peter Bindels

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[TypeTraits] is it possible to add something to boost.type_traits?
by frederic.bron＠alcan.com 17 Dec '09

17 Dec '09

Dear boost implementers, TypeTraits is very useful, thanks you. However, recently, I needed something to know if a type is comparable (with operator<) and that was not in the library. Fortunately, somebody forwarded me an earlier post on the users list where I could find what I wanted. The implementation was inspired from boost/detail/is_incrementable.hpp I have written is_less_comparable, is_less_equal_comparable, is_greater_comparable... inspired from the same source and I wonder if it could be possible to add it to the library as I think it could be helpful for others. I give the source code below (if it is useful) but I am not able to make it fully general as it is in boost/type_traits. In particular, I do not understand all the macros that are used. Regards, F. Bron (See attached file: is_comparable.hpp) Avis : Ce message et toute pièce jointe sont la propriété d'Alcan et sont destinés seulement aux personnes ou à l'entité à qui le message est adressé. Si vous avez reçu ce message par erreur, veuillez le détruire et en aviser l'expéditeur par courriel. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire du message, vous n'êtes pas autorisé à utiliser, à copier ou à divulguer le contenu du message ou ses pièces jointes en tout ou en partie. Notice: This message and any attachments are the property of Alcan and are intended solely for the named recipients or entity to whom this message is addressed. If you have received this message in error please inform the sender via e-mail and destroy the message. If you are not the intended recipient you are not allowed to use, copy or disclose the contents or attachments in whole or in part.

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Re: [boost] Formal Review Request: Boost.String.Convert
by Vladimir.Batov＠wrsa.com.au 02 Dec '09

02 Dec '09

I understand we'll never manage to please everyone. Apologies. For now I am settling on the boost::convert interface as I very much agree with the arguments Robert's put forward for it and I feel there is the least disagreement around this interface. Surely boost::convert() has issues of its own. However, I feel the path (convert::to_string->convert::to->convert) how I myself arrived to this logical (IMHO) conclusion seemed reasonable. More so, despite its subtle (to some) directionality the interface has proven to work (as it is essentially the same interface as for lexical_cast). You cannot deny that I made considerable sacrifices (my pets "string" namespace and "to/from" are gone, something I was ready to die :-) for yesterday...). I am hoping the others could make some concessions as well and we would settle on boost::convert()... for now. If some other issues pop up that we missed so far, we'll revisit the issue. It is because I would very much like to move forward and start looking at the functionality and implementation. Do you think it is possible or I am rushing things again? I somewhat cleaned up the implementation (removed to/from, etc.). However, before going forward I'd like to discuss one important thing that's been bugging me since Scott brought it up. Namely, all conversions are now implemented as discriminated functions like // string-to-type conversion template<class TypeOut, class StringIn> typename boost::enable_if_c< !is_string<TypeOut>::value && is_string<StringIn>::value, detail::from_string<StringIn, TypeOut> >::type convert(StringIn const& from_str, TypeOut const& default_value =TypeOut()) { return detail::from_string<StringIn, TypeOut>(from_str, default_value); } However, Scott mentioned that and I feel that might be cleaner if we could implement it as namespace boost { template<class TypeOut, class TypeIn, class Enable =void> class convert; } Then for every conversion we'll be able to encapsulate *complete* implementation in the respective specialization class. Like for string-to-type template< class TypeOut, class StringIn, typename boost::enable_if_c< !is_string<TypeOut>::value && is_string<StringIn>::value, void>::type> class convert { convert(StringIn const& from_str, TypeOut const& default_value =TypeOut()); }; The reason I like it is that it eliminates other support/intermediate classes (like something used-to-called boost::string::value<...> and detail::from_string) and we can do int i = convert(str, -1); // Nothing changed. a 'convert' instance created on the stack and converted to 'int'. convert<int, string> checked(str, -1); // named 'convert' is created. convert<int, string> checked = convert(str, -1); // the same but some might like this syntax better. if (checked.good()) success // we can check the success as ussed to with boost::string::value It feels that approach gives us considerably more room for expansion as some special conversions will be able to have methods only specific to that particular conversion. For this approach to work with algorithms we'll need class convert { static TypeOut apply(TypeIn const&); }; and then std::transform( ints.begin(), ints.end(), std::back_inserter(strings), convert<string, int>::apply); Thanks, Vladimir.

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[thread] #2742 Why the at_thread_exit cleanup function is const?
by vicente.botet 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

Hi, Anthony, could you verify the patch and test I have attached to the ticket works for other platforms that cygwin? Thanks, _____________________ Vicente Juan Botet Escribá

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Boost.Variant is not EqualityComparable
by brook＠biology.nmsu.edu 12 Nov '09

12 Nov '09

I just ran into the case that Boost Variant does not satisfy the EqualityComparable concept. While it provides operator==() and operator<() (and therefore is LessThanComparable), it does not provide operator!=(), which is required for the EqualityComparable concept. Is this by design or oversight? It seems reasonable to expect that a Boost Variant model this concept, but perhaps I am missing something. In case it is by oversight, the following patch seems to provide the missing operator. Cheers, Brook --- boost/variant/variant.hpp.orig 2009-05-13 21:21:59.000000000 -0600 +++ boost/variant/variant.hpp 2009-05-25 19:21:40.000000000 -0600 @@ -1681,6 +1681,8 @@ return rhs.apply_visitor(visitor); } + bool operator!=(const variant& rhs) const { return !(*this == rhs); } + bool operator<(const variant& rhs) const { //

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proposal interval container; ITL moved to the boost sandbox
by Joachim Faulhaber 11 Nov '09

11 Nov '09

Dear boosters, after completion of a lot of boostification work I moved my Interval Template Library to the boost sandbox in the boost project centric form: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/browser/sandbox/itl itl boost itl [itl_xt] [validate] libs itl [itl_xt] [validate] I have split up the original library into three parts: (1) itl, (2) itl_xt and (3) validate. Core part 1 'ITL' contains all interval container class templates. Only this part will be prepared for a formal submission. Part 2 'itl_xt' contains extended parts of the original library that do not belong to the core interval container data structures and might be proposed for later extensions. Part 3 'validate' contains the sources for the law based test automaton 'LaBatea' that has been used for an automated check of the ITLs correctness. Parts 2 and 3 do not yet conform boost standards and naming conventions and are not yet intended as contributions to boost. On the core ITL-part I have done the following: + Removed all virtual functions via introduction of mixins + Integrated deeper into boost libraries replacing own code by e.g. boost::type_traits and boost::mpl + Minimized the class template interfaces by transforming member functions into non member function templates. + Made interval containers more interoperable by overloading operators and global function templates. + Wrote a test suite using boost unit test tools. Tested for boost-instance types boost::date_time and boost::rational + Provided jamfiles to build and run examples and tests. + All examples and tests have been compiled, linked and run successfully with msvc_9.0 and gcc_3.4.4(cygwin). Next I am going to write boost style html-documentation. >From the boost web page I don't see a clear recommendation for a preferable way of doing that. Handcoded? Generated with BoostBook? Is there a reference library that has an exemplary standard documentation? Cheers Joachim

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[utility] auto_buffer v2
by Thorsten Ottosen 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Dear All, Hereby an updated class. Thanks to all who contributed with comments to the first try. I have made the following changes: 1. push_back() overloads are now growing 2. added swap() (boy, was this nasty to implement). I assume the allocator can be wapped without throwing. How do other people copy with this problem? 3. added copy-constructor + copy-assignment 4. made the min capacity equal to N, the number of elements in the stack buffer 5. the size of the internal buffer is now controlled via two policies: template< unsigned N > struct store_n_objects; template< unsigned N > struct store_n_bytes; the default is store_n_objects<256>. The reason is that we don't want the capacity to change just because we compile on a different platform. 6. added comparison operators Comments most welcome! best regards -Thorsten

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[interprocess][multi_index] emplace() is not sufficient for maps
by Thorsten Ottosen 25 Sep '09

25 Sep '09

Hi Ion and Joaquín, This issue is related to node-based containers. I think you both have added emplace() to provide efficient in-place construction. However, I often encounter a situation where emplace() is not sufficient for me. The situation is characterized by the need to calculate the key after the mapped value (a heavy object) has been placed in the pair. To calculate the key the mapped value needs to be modified (the key is calculated as a side-effect). I therefore suggest that we add a new function: typedef ... map; map m; map::node_ptr p = m.get_node_ptr(<like emplace, but only for constructing the mapped value>); p->pair.first = modify( p->pair.second ); m.insert( boost::move(p) ); Thoughts? -Thorsten

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[Endian] Version 0.10 available - Binary I/O added
by Beman Dawes 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Version 0.10 of the Endian Integers library is available. Docs: http://mysite.verizon.net/beman/endian-0.10/libs/integer/doc/endian.html Zip: http://mysite.verizon.net/beman/endian-0.10.zip Sandbox: http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/endian This version adds binary I/O for both endian integers (<boost/integer/endian_binary_stream.hpp>) and C++ built-in types + std::string (<boost/integer/endian_binary_stream.hpp>). Support for C++0x features has also been added, ensuring that an Endian integer on C++0x is a POD. Comments appreciated! My Endian TODO list is pretty well cleared, so there are comments to the contrary, the library will be submitted for formal review in a few days. --Beman

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[unordered] please don't allocate memory in the default constructor
by Thorsten Ottosen 10 Sep '09

10 Sep '09

Hi Jeremy, I think this a really bad idea to allocate in the default construtor. The user can always call rehash() on the empty container, just like when we call reserve() for vector. Thanks -Thorsten

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