January 2012 - Boost - lists.boost.org

Boost Review Wizard Report for January 2012
by Ronald Garcia 10 Jan '12

10 Jan '12

============================================== Review Wizard Status Report for January 2012 ============================================== News ==== 1. Type Traits Library Extensions Accepted 2. AutoIndex Tool Accepted 3. Heaps Library Accepted 4. Assign v2 Library Rejected 5. Type Traits Introspection Library Accepted 6. Lockfree Library Accepted 7. Algorithm Library Accepted 8. Atomic Library Accepted 9. Local Library Accepted 10. Context Mini-review Ongoing Open Issues =========== The following libraries have been reviewed and await reports from their review managers: * Conversion - reviewed August 2011; review manager: Gordon Woodhull. The following libraries have been accepted to Boost, but have not yet been submitted to SVN: * Constrained Value - accepted September 2010; author: Robert Kawulak * GIL.IO - accepted January 2011; author: Christian Henning. * Atomic - accepted July 2011; author Helge Bahmann * Lockfree - accepted August 2011; author: Tim Blechmann. * Algorithm - accepted December 2011; author: Marshall Clow The following libraries have been accepted and submitted to SVN, but have not yet appeared in a release: * Heaps - accepted June 2011; author: Tim Blechmann. * Type Traits Introspection - accepted August 2011; author: Edward Diener. The following libraries have been accepted provisionally to Boost, but have not been submitted for mini-review and full acceptance: * Log - accepted provisionally March 2010; author: Andrey Semashev. * Endian - accepted provisionally November 2011; author: Beman Dawes. After repeated failed attempts to contact the author, the following library has been marked as Orphaned. * Switch library, accepted provisionally January 2008 author: Steven Watanabe. General Announcements ===================== As always, we need experienced review managers. Please take a look at the list of libraries in need of managers and check out their descriptions. In general review managers are active boost participants, including library contributors, infrastructure contributors, and other mailing list participants with a substantial track record of constructive participation. If you can serve as review manager for any of them, email Ron Garcia or John Phillips, "rxg at cs dot cmu dot edu" and "phillips at pacific dot mps dot ohio-state dot edu" respectively. We are also suffering from a lack of reviewers. While we all understand time pressures and the need to complete paying work, the strength of Boost is based on the detailed and informed reviews submitted by you. If you are interested in reviewing a library but won't have time during the review period, you can always prepare your review ahead of time. No rule says you can only work on a review during the review period. A link to this report will be posted to www.boost.org. If you would like us to make any modifications or additions to this report before we do that, please email Ron or John. The review schedule is an unordered list of the libraries awaiting review. As such, any library on the schedule can be reviewed once the developer is ready, a review manager has been secured, and the manager, developer, and wizards agree on a date to schedule the review. Review Schedule =============== * Join (M) * Pimpl (M) * Sorting (M) * Quaternions, Vectors, Matrices (M) * Variadic Macro Data (M) * Block Pointer (M) * Network (M) * Singularity (M) * Predef (M) ``(M)`` marks libraries that need review managers. -------------------- Join ---- :Author: Yigong Liu :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://channel.sourceforge.net/ :Description: Join is an asynchronous, message based C++ concurrency library based on join calculus. It is applicable both to multi-threaded applications and to the orchestration of asynchronous, event-based applications. It follows Comega's design and implementation and builds with Boost facilities. It provides a high level concurrency API with asynchronous methods, synchronous methods, and chords which are "join-patterns" defining the synchronization, asynchrony, and concurrency. Pimpl ----- :Author: Vladimir Batov :Review Manager: Needed :Download: | `Boost Vault <http://www.boost-consulting.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&fil…>`__ | http://www.ddj.com/cpp/205918714 (documentation) :Description: The Pimpl idiom is a simple yet robust technique to minimize coupling via the separation of interface and implementation and then implementation hiding. This library provides a convenient yet flexible and generic deployment technique for the Pimpl idiom. It's seemingly complete and broadly applicable, yet minimal, simple and pleasant to use. Sorting ------- :Author: Steven Ross :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Vault <http://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=al…>`__ :Description: A grouping of 3 templated hybrid radix/comparison-based sorting algorithms that provide superior worst-case and average-case performance to std::sort: integer_sort, which sorts fixed-size data types that support a rightshift (default of >>) and a comparison (default of <) operator. float_sort, which sorts standard floating-point numbers by safely casting them to integers. string_sort, which sorts variable-length data types, and is optimized for 8-bit character strings. All 3 algorithms have O(n(k/s + s)) runtime where k is the number of bits in the data type and s is a constant, and limited memory overhead (in the kB for realistic inputs). In testing, integer_sort varies from 35% faster to 2X as fast as std::sort, depending on processor, compiler optimizations, and data distribution. float_sort is roughly 70% faster than std::sort. string_sort is roughly 2X as fast as std::sort. Quaternions, Vectors, Matrices ------------------------------ :Author: Emil Dotchevski :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://www.revergestudios.com/boost-qvm/ :Description: QVM defines a set of generic functions and operator overloads for working with quaternions, vectors and matrices of static size. The library also defines vector and matrix data types, however it allows users to introduce their own types by specializing the q_traits, v_traits and m_traits templates. Variadic Macro Data ------------------- :Author: Edward Diener :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Sandbox <http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/variadic_macro_data/>`__ :Description: The variadic_macro_data library adds support and functionality for variadic macros to Boost as well as integrating variadic macros with the Boost PP library without changing the latter library in any way. Block Pointer ------------- :Author: Phil Bouchard :Review Manager: Needed :Download: `Boost Sandbox <https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/block_ptr/>`__ :Description: Deterministic memory manager of constant complexity capable of handling cyclic collections. Network ------- :Author: Dean Michael Berris :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://cplusplus-soup.com/2011/04/18/cpp-netlib-0-9-0-released/ :Description: This is a library that provides application layer protocol support using modern C++ techniques. It is light-weight, fast, cross-platform and is intended to be as easy to configure as possible. Singularity ----------- :Author: Ben Robinson :Review Manager: Needed :Download: https://github.com/icaretaker/Singularity :Description: The Singularity Design Pattern allows you to restrict any class to a single instance. Unlike the infamous Singleton, Singularity gives you direct control over the lifetime of the object, does not require you to grant global access to the object, nor does it limit you to the default constructor for that object. Predef ------ :Author: Rene Rivera :Review Manager: Needed :Download: http://tinyurl.com/73n6a3k :Description: The Predef library implements two simple tasks: 1. Definition of a single version number macro to provide consistent version number at the preprocessor level. 2. A collection of detected definitions for compilers, standard libraries, architectures, operating systems, and languages. Unlike the Boost Config Library it doesn't define language features and capabilities. But only defines presence of detected compilation context. Documentation and downloads are available in the sandbox.. Libraries under development =========================== See http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/LibrariesUnderConstruction for a current listing of libraries under development.

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[context] 4 days left on Boost.Context mini-review
by Giovanni Piero Deretta 10 Jan '12

10 Jan '12

Hi All, This is a call for reviewers for Boost.Context. The mini review period will end the 11th of this month and we only had 1 review so far and we were expecting a few more. We had some interesting discussions on the original review period and quite a few people were involved, so anybody who has an interest in boost.context please write a review. thank you all, -- gpd

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Re: [boost] FW: Proposal for a Differential Evolution C++ library
by Adrian Michel 09 Jan '12

09 Jan '12

On 12/23/2011 10:07 AM, Dave Abrahams wrote: >> On 12.12.2011 06:52, Adrian Michel wrote: >> >> The full documentation is at http://www.amichel.com/de/doc/html but >> I'd >> suggest these pages for a first read >> http://www.amichel.com/de/doc/html/dd/d53/overview.html and >> http://www.amichel.com/de/doc/html/db/d4e/tutorial.html . > > This looks like important and useful stuff to me. > I was wondering what the status of this proposal is. So far several members have expressed interest, but there have been no new posts on this in a while, and I'm not sure what to expect next as far as the boost inclusion acceptance (or rejection) process. Adrian Michel www.tradery.com

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[iterator] Combining traversal_tags with iterator_tags
by Ronald Garcia 09 Jan '12

09 Jan '12

Hi, In MultiArray I would like use iterator_facade to create an iterator that can satisfy random_access_traversal, input_iterator_tag, and output_iterator_tag. I see that in the file boost/iterator/detail/facade_iterator_category.hpp, at line 138 there is a class in the boost::detail namespace declared template <class Category, class Traversal> struct iterator_category_with_traversal So it looks like passing: boost::detail::iterator_category_with_traversal<boost::detail::input_output_iterator_tag,boost::random_traversal_tag> as the CategoryOrTraversal would be what I want. However, two components above are in the detail namespace, so I am not sure if they are meant to be used by other libraries. Is this a safe operation? Thanks, Ron Side Notes: In my searches, I found a few buggy bits in the docs and code comments: - In boost/iterator/detail/facade_iterator_category.hpp, line 76, there's a comment: // If writability has been disabled per the above metafunction, the // result will not be convertible to output_iterator_tag. This comment corresponds to behavior that was removed in changeset: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/21683 Now the result will never be convertible to output_iterator_tag. - In the documentation for iterator_facade, there's a bit of a booboo where the function is first written: iterator-category(CategoryOrTraversal, value_type, reference) Then defined as: iterator-category(C,R,V) So I think the argument order is flipped.

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Is the review schedule up to date?
by Klaim - Joël Lamotte 08 Jan '12

08 Jan '12

Hi and happy new year, I just wanted to know if the review schedule page is currently up to date ( http://www.boost.org/community/review_schedule.html) I'm asking because I'm a bit surprised that so much proposed libraries don't have a review manager, so maybe it's just that they have not been noted on this page? Thanks. Joël Lamotte

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Re: [boost] [Boost.Move] [Boost.Container] Compiling with older versions of Boost and Performance
by Thomas Jordan 08 Jan '12

08 Jan '12

> Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:58:20 +0100 > From: "Vicente J. Botet Escriba" <vicente.botet(a)wanadoo.fr> <snip> > Le 07/01/12 12:10, Thomas Jordan a ?crit : >> Hi, >> I am interested in experimenting with v1.48 Boost.Move and >> Boost.Container. However, I am otherwise constrained to using Boost >> libraries v1.33.1 with >> a Sun C++ v5.10 compiler. I couldn't seem any 'Boost library >> dependencies' listed in the Move/Container documentation, but a quick >> look through the header files suggests >> that it is mainly MPL and Type Traits. So... >> First question: would it be feasible for me to combine the headers for >> these two libraries with the v1.33.1 libraries and get it to work (albeit >> maybe with a little customisation), or would it be a big job/non-starter? >> Second question - I don't see any performance analysis published for >> Boost.Move. I know that move semantics is about more than improved >> performance, but am interested in that side of things, especially as the >> above compiler appears suboptimal in terms of copy elision and RVO. I am >> wondering for example whether are there any (compiler-specific) factors >> which could mitigate against the performance benefits of doing a move vs >> a copy of a vector, using these libraries, for example. >> > > Hi, > > unfortunately Boost.Move and Boost.Container are not working up to now > on Sun c++ even on trunk (1.49). See > http://www.boost.org/development/tests/trunk/developer/container.html. > > Best, > Vicente Thanks for pointing me to that. In general is there anything more detailed than pass/fail available to look at? Is the assumption that something with so many fails it not fixable one the library side, and is not worth investigating? Regards, T.

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[docs][crc] Did I do new documentation correctly?
by Daryle Walker 08 Jan '12

08 Jan '12

I completely redid the documentation for Boost.CRC in changeset [76335]. It uses Doxygen and Quickbook. I guessed on how to do it by copying files from Boost.Move. But I only did stuff within the BOOST_ROOT/libs/crc/* directory. I didn't make changes to other directories, especially the BOOST_ROOT/doc/* directory. Is stuff in that directory supposed to be automatically built? Other concerns: 1. The quickbook/doxygen system doesn't seem to handle "\todo" constructs correctly. 2. Is there a way to #define various common macros, like BOOST_STATIC_CONSTANT, so they get expanded correctly in Doxygen? Is there a "Doxyfile," or can the needed Doxygen parameters be tweaked in the Jamfile.v2? 3. I guessed that the next release will be "1.49.0", is that right? 4. Content-wise, did I miss anything? Daryle W.

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compile time parser generator
by Martin Bidlingmaier 08 Jan '12

08 Jan '12

Hello, with c++11's constexpr it got possible to parse strings in c++ at compile time. I've written a parser generator to create an AST for a given EBNF syntax at compile time, which can be traversed at both run time and compile time (actually, parsing can take place at run time, too, but it's probably rather slow). At the moment, the only compiler I know of that implements enough of c++11 features is gcc (version >= 4.6). Is refining my implementation worth the effort, has such a library a chance to make it into boost? Is maybe somebody already working on this? Sincerely, Martin Bidlingmaier -- NEU: FreePhone - 0ct/min Handyspartarif mit Geld-zurück-Garantie! Jetzt informieren: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/freephone

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no match for ‘operator=’ error with circular_buffer iterator when addressing buffer by reference?
by Bernd Prager 08 Jan '12

08 Jan '12

I am trying do use a circular_buffer iterator and run into problems when I try to write a copy constructor for my class. g++ (GCC) 4.5.3 generates following error: Test.cpp: In copy constructor ‘Test::Test(const Test&)’: Test.cpp:23:18: error: no match for ‘operator=’ in ‘it2 = boost::circular_buffer<T, Alloc>::begin() const [with T = int, Alloc = std::allocator<int>, boost::circular_buffer<T, Alloc>::const_iterator = boost::cb_details::iterator<boost::circular_buffer<int>, boost::cb_details::const_traits<std::allocator<int> > >]()’ /usr/local/include/boost/circular_buffer/details.hpp:253:15: note: candidate is: boost::cb_details::iterator<Buff, Traits>& boost::cb_details::iterator<Buff, Traits>::operator=(const boost::cb_details::iterator<Buff, Traits>&) [with Buff = boost::circular_buffer<int>, Traits = boost::cb_details::nonconst_traits<std::allocator<int> >, boost::cb_details::iterator<Buff, Traits> = boost::cb_details::iterator<boost::circular_buffer<int>, boost::cb_details::nonconst_traits<std::allocator<int> > >] What do I miss. Can anybody help? Thank you, -- Bernd #include <boost/circular_buffer.hpp> class Test { public: Test(); Test(const Test&); private: boost::circular_buffer<int> b; }; Test::Test() { b.resize(10); } Test::Test(const Test &t) { b.resize(10); size_t s1 = b.size(); size_t s2 = t.b.size(); boost::circular_buffer<int>::iterator it1 = b.begin(); boost::circular_buffer<int>::iterator it2 = t.b.begin(); } int main() { Test *t = new Test(); return 0; }

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Re: [boost] [Boost.smart_ptr] Thread Safety
by Thomas Jordan 08 Jan '12

08 Jan '12

Message: 7 Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:49:07 -0500 From: Dave Abrahams <dave(a)boostpro.com> To: boost(a)lists.boost.org Subject: Re: [boost] [Boost.smart_ptr] Thread Safety Message-ID: <m24nw7p4j0.fsf(a)pluto.luannocracy.com> Content-Type: text/plain >on Sat Jan 07 2012, "Thomas Jordan" <thomasjordan-AT-btinternet.com> wrote: >> Hi, >> Is shared_array completely thread-safe, including >> destruction/reference counting? From the code in >> /boost/detail/sp_counted_base_pt.hpp it looks like it probably is but >> according to >> >> http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_33_1/libs/smart_ptr/shared_ptr.htm#ThreadSa… >I can't reach that (very ancient) page right now, but... The documentation for this is example is the same in the latest v1.48 release. >> // thread A >> p3 = p2; // reads p2, writes p3 >> >> // thread B >> // p2 goes out of scope: undefined, the destructor is considered a "write >> access" >> >> shared_ptr isn't completely thread-safe for simultaneous read and >> write/destruct access? The same would presumbly apply to shared_array? >> Maybe I've missed something, are there compile-time configuration >> options to determine level of safety? >shared_ptr<T> is almost exactly as threadsafe as T* is. In this case, >thread A has a reference to an object on B's stack. That object is >called p2. If thread A tries to use that object's value while the >object is being destroyed, yeah, that's a race condition. >The way to avoid this situation is for thread B to pass p2 to thread A >by value, thus creating p2a, which thread A can read without concern. >Now there's no race condition. Note: this change does /not/ cause the T >object held by p2 to be copied. Thanks, I think my confusion arose from my inferring that the P2 in thread A in this example was shorthand for P2a, i.e., a copy of the actual P2 in thread B. Makes sense as per your interpretation. Regards, T.

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