June 2024 - Boost - lists.boost.org

Two mqtt libraries
by Robert Ramey 03 Oct '24

03 Oct '24

I've been contacted by my friend and sometime collaborator Takatoshi Kondo regarding his submission of a boost library: https://github.com/redboltz/async_mqtt. It has received two endorsements. He has asked me to be review manager and I'm inclined to accept this request as he was very helpful to me during the refinement of the boost serialization library. There is also mqtt client library that is proposed to the Boost. https://github.com/mireo/async-mqtt5 It also has endorsements and a review manager. A cursory examination of the git hub pages suggest considerable overlap between the two submissions. In general, boost has discouraged the acceptance of multiple libraries with this much overlap - and for good reason. An accepted library often becomes the canonical implementation in large parts of the C++ world. Having two high quality libraries that do almost the same thing is not where we would like to be. I would like to propose that we review both libraries simultaneously in order to try to reach a consensus as to which, if either we want to accept. I know this is a difficult task, but I think it is important that we do this. It's going to be tough to reject a well written library because a better one has been accepted. But it would be worse to reject a well written library merely because another one was submitted first. Normally I don't participate as a review manager as I'm pretty bogged down in Boost stuff as it is. But I'm willing to make an exception in this case due to the importance of this case and my strong personal ties to Takatoshi. BTW - who is the review wizard these days? I presume that he will be the one making the decision about this. Robert Ramey

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CMake Announcement from Boost Steering Committee
by Jon Kalb 13 Aug '24

13 Aug '24

The libraries produced by the Boost community have had a greater impact on the way that the C++ community writes code than any other library implementation. The focus of the Boost community will always be on the libraries, but it is undeniable that we are dependent on and often limited by the infrastructure of our trade. Years ago, the move to Git was contentious; yet, it was required to improve development. In a similar vein our build system has become an impediment for many developers and users, existing and prospective. Therefore, we, the Steering Committee, announce to the Boost community our desire and intent to move Boost’s build system to CMake for users and developers alike. We are soliciting comments and proposals from the community to guide the process and the goals. Our desire is that the community can come to consensus by the end of the calendar year with a vision of supporting users and developers. We understand that the actual process of achieving the end goal will be long, time consuming, and not without its share of conflict. We also recognize that the Boost community is comprised of bright and passionate individuals that are eager to get involved and help get work done. The members of the Steering Committee have been encouraged by the discussions and activity surrounding CMake on the mailing lists over the years and know that many people have voiced visions. We hope that each of you rejoins the discussion to support this initiative and contributes to the common goal of improving Boost’s integration into the broader C++ ecosystem. For the Boost Steering Committee, Jon Kalb, Chair jonkalb(a)boost.org

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Boost Governance?
by René Ferdinand Rivera Morell 10 Aug '24

10 Aug '24

A disclaimer: I write this solely as a Boost Library author. And not in any other capacity or representing any other interest. It's now been at least a year since Boost switched from the Software Freedom Conservancy to the Boost Foundation for its governance organization. But have people noticed any difference? Did you know that switch happened? Did you know that they held an election for the Board of Directors and for the Officers? Do you know when that election happened? Do you know who got elected? Do you know how they were selected? Do you know what their responsibilities are? Do you know what their bylaws are? Do you know their financials? More importantly: Did you answer "no" to any of those questions? As a library author, I can say I definitely answered no to many of those questions. This is a problem. As authors, without asking, we should know those answers from the organization that governs our work. We should have input into how that organization governs. In other words, we deserve open and transparent governance; not the closed and opaque status quo. -- -- René Ferdinand Rivera Morell -- Don't Assume Anything -- No Supone Nada -- Robot Dreams - http://robot-dreams.net

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Paul Bristow
by John Maddock 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

I've just heard that Paul Bristow who helped so much with the development of Boost.Math and indeed many other libraries, passed away peacefully last week. RIP Paul. Much missed. John.

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[unordered] New natvis visualizations + accompanying article
by Braden Ganetsky 16 Jul '24

16 Jul '24

Hi everyone, This is my first message on the ML. I've written visualizations in the Visual Studio Natvis framework for the Boost.Unordered containers and iterators. This will improve the user experience for anyone using Visual Studio. The visualizations mirror those of the STL unordered containers as closely as possible, except that end iterators display as "{ end iterator }" instead of the visualization just breaking. Here is the file: https://github.com/boostorg/unordered/blob/develop/extra/boost_unordered.na… I've written an accompanying article about the natvis implementation for the closed-addressing containers. I will be writing a second article about the implementation for the open-addressing containers. This first article contains some tips and tricks for using the natvis framework that I wish I knew before going into this, especially about using "<Intrinsic>" elements. Hopefully it can help someone else. Link to the article: https://blog.ganets.ky/NatvisForUnordered/ Custom gdb pretty-printers will be next up. Thank you to Joaquín for reviewing the code and the article. Thanks all, Braden Ganetsky

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New Boost website ready for launch
by Joaquin M López Muñoz 06 Jul '24

06 Jul '24

Hi everyone, As most of you know, the new Boost website has been in the works for quite a long time: last week we've fixed the last showstopper issues and are now in a position to launch it publicly and announce to the wider community! See the launch-ready website at: https://boost.io The new website is ready to replace the current one at boost.org any time we want. The old site has served us well for 25 years, and it deserves to be given a retirement permit. OVERVIEW The new website is organized in five top-level sections: * News: an aggregator of internal announcements, blog articles, videos, etc. related to the Boost project. * Learn: comprehensive and completely rewritten tutorials and reference material for users, contributors and review participants. Check this out: there's a ton of new stuff here. * Community: links to the various discussion venues for Boost (mailing lists, Slack groups, X, etc.). * Libraries: revamped directory of Boost libraries, with integrated access to version-specific docs, repos, and more. * Releases: access to release notes, download binaries and source code for all Boost versions from 1.16.1 up to the current one. Users can navigate the website anonymously or log in to be able to contribute to the News section, receive notifications etc. The site uses responsive design to work on wide screens as well as your mobile device. Also, check the light and dark modes at the top-right corner :-) FEEDBACK AND FUTURE The evolution of the website does not stop here. We have quite a backlog of issues and new features registered at: https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2/issues https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2-docs/issues But we're also expecting your feedback! Please let us know what you think of the website and ways to improve it. I will personally make sure that all comments and suggestions are properly addressed. Ways to contribute: * Through the mailing list or the #boost-website group at cpplang.slack.com. * Filing issues directly at https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2 (website proper) and https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2 (learning material). * Learning material has an "Edit this page" link from where you can fork any documentation section and propose changes through a pull request. * Reach out to me anyway you'd like. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are just too many individuals to list here who had contributed to the new website --my thanks to all of them. Let me mention some of the people I have worked with the most in the last two months, when I took over the PM role for this launch effort. * The people at REVSYS (Frank Wiles, Lacey Henschel) and Spencer Strickland built the Django-based backend and most of the frontend. Kenneth Reitz and Julio C. Estrada have been working tirelessly to close functionality gaps and fix remaining issues up to launch status. * Peter Turcan is the main author of the new learning material featured in the website. Again, check it out and help us spot glitches or propose new topics to work on. * Sam Darwin, who's already the Atlas upon whom the current Boost infrastructure rests, has double down on his responsibilites to set up and take care of this new backend. * René Rivera wrote many of the scripts that power the old website and has assisted us in the migration process with his expertise and unique insights into the particulars of Boost internal procedures. * Many people have filed issues during development, but the record holder is Andrey Semashev (39 tickets and counting). His suggestions and active involvement in the fixing process have made the website a better place. Best, Joaquín M López Muñoz

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In Response to Mr. Falco's June 2024 Letter
by Kristen Shaker 01 Jul '24

01 Jul '24

Hello Boost Community, My name is Kristen. Admittedly, I am not the most active participant on the boost mailing list. However, I do serve on the Boost Foundation Board of Directors as Board Chair. It is lovely to e-meet you; Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to get to know you better during the course of my tenure. Recently, we became aware of a letter that was circulated to the Boost developer community. The Boost Foundation Board of Directors have penned the following note in response to that letter. _____________________________________ Dear Boost Community Members, Recently, Mr. Falco distributed a letter indicating intent to a) rescind his offer of hosting a new boost.org website, b) retract his agreement to retire the @BoostLibraries account on X in favor of the established @Boost_Libraries, c) create a new set of Boost mailing lists on boost.io, and d) attempt to purchase the boost.org domain name from Beman Dawes’s estate. While we are surprised and saddened by this turn of events, we agree with Mr. Falco that cutting ties between the C++ Alliance and the Boost Foundation is in everyone’s best interests. That being said, we want to acknowledge Mr. Falco and his employees’ tremendous contributions toward a modernized Boost website and significant investment in maintaining and extending the Boost Libraries. On March 28th, 2024, the Foundation voted to point the boost.org domain name at Mr. Falco’s new site. Given that we had every intention to move forward we were shocked to hear that Mr Falco felt we were “holding [his] work hostage.” The Boost Foundation was entirely unaware of Mr. Falco’s attempts to purchase the boost.org domain name. We were not consulted until it became clear to Mr. Falco that to proceed with the transaction, he would need the login credentials for the domain name provider. At that point, Mr. Falco did contact a board member requesting the credentials, which were not provided to him. We were hesitant to discuss these events publicly, but since Mr. Falco has openly described his attempts to purchase the boost.org domain name, this public response seems appropriate. The fact that he took these steps without coordinating with—or even notifying— the Boost Foundation, has shaken our confidence in the Alliance and Mr. Falco. While we very much appreciate Mr. Falco's financial investment, nonprofits like Boost are not—nor should they be—beholden to their largest financial contributors. We are committed to continuing to foster a collaborative environment where C++ developers can contribute great ideas to the open source community. Boost's consensus-based process is not always the fastest way to the best result, but it is consistent with that commitment. Ideally, Mr. Falco would be interested in contributing financially to a worthy cause without assuming control over the Libraries, but his letter indicates otherwise. Therefore, we agree with Mr. Falco’s assessment that there is no viable path forward for further coordination between The C++ Alliance and The Boost Foundation. We do, however, wish Mr. Falco and the Alliance all the best in their continued efforts to improve the C++ ecosystem. Sincerely, The Boost Foundation Board of Directors

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boost::any_cast gives build errors with VS2022, boost v1.82 and C++17
by Bhuyan, Jyotideep 01 Jul '24

01 Jul '24

Hi, I was using VS2019, boost v1.78, and C++14 version and the below code was working well. Same code gives build error with VS2022, boost v1.82, and C++17 due to "o << *boost::any_cast<T>(&a); " Instruction. I wanted to know why it behaves differently. Code : class any_out { struct streamer { virtual void print(std::ostream& o, const boost::any& a) = 0; virtual streamer* clone() = 0; virtual ~streamer() {} }; public: any_out() : m_streamer(nullptr) { } ~any_out() { delete m_streamer; } template <typename T> any_out(const T& value) : m_streamer(new streamer_imp<T>), m_object(value) { } any_out(const any_out& a) : m_streamer(a.m_streamer ? a.m_streamer->clone() : nullptr), m_object(a.m_object) { } template <typename T> any_out& operator=(const T& r) { any_out(r).swap(*this); return *this; } any_out& operator=(const any_out& r) { any_out(r).swap(*this); return *this; } any_out& swap(any_out& r) noexcept { std::swap(m_streamer, r.m_streamer); std::swap(m_object, r.m_object); return *this; } friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& o, const any_out& a) { if(a.m_streamer) { a.m_streamer->print(o, a.m_object); } return o; } boost::any& get() { return m_object; } const boost::any get()const { return m_object; } bool empty() const { return m_object.empty(); } private: template <typename T> struct streamer_imp : public streamer { virtual void print(std::ostream& o, const boost::any& a) { try { if (a.empty()) { o << "<empty>"; } else { o << *boost::any_cast<T>(&a); } } } virtual streamer* clone() { return new streamer_imp<T>(); } }; // Members streamer* m_streamer; boost::any m_object; }; I have migrated to VS2022, boost v1.82, and C++17, and due to a build error, I have changed the code below. virtual void print(std::ostream& o, const boost::any& a) { try { if (a.empty()) { o << "<empty>"; } else { o << boost::any_cast<T*>(a); } } } any_out anyTest; anyTest = 100; std::string actualStr; actualStr = make_string() << anyTest; actualStr prints nullptr (0000000) instated of value 100 for VS2022, boost v1.82 and C++17 Best Regards, Jyotideep (JD) Please be advised that this email may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us by email by replying to the sender and delete this message. The sender disclaims that the content of this email constitutes an offer to enter into, or the acceptance of, any agreement; provided that the foregoing does not invalidate the binding effect of any digital or other electronic reproduction of a manual signature that is included in any attachment. Confidential - Company Proprietary

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FYI: recent VS2022 17.10.x gives "Boost toolset is unknown (compiler MSVC 19.40.33808.0)" warning - due to Microsoft changing of the toolset version
by Dennis Luehring 21 Jun '24

21 Jun '24

...using Boost only CMake configure The MSVC toolset will increment its minor version number from|19.39|(VS 2022 v17.9) to|19.40|(VS 2022 v17.10). https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/msvc-toolset-minor-version-number-14… is still useable - did not check if building boost is a problem

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[boost.QVM] can you explain quaternions in the docs?
by Andrzej Krzemienski 19 Jun '24

19 Jun '24

Hi Everyone, I landed on this library docs when trying to learn what quarterions are for. Although the library has a vast documentation it doesn't explain what quaternions are and why they are used. When I was taught algebra for the purpose of computer graphics, vectors and matrices were on the table, but no quaternions. The examples show that I need to create a quaternion only to turn it into a rotation matrix. I am pretty sure there has to be more to it. Could I request an introduction section in the docs that would explain what quaternions are and why one would want to use them? The corresponding GitHub issue: https://github.com/boostorg/qvm/issues/51 Regards, &rzej;

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