- Boost - lists.boost.org

Re: [boost] [Boost-users] Interest in a Unicode library for Boost?
by Zach Laine 01 Nov '19

01 Nov '19

Mathias pointed out that I sent this just to him. So I'm replying again to get this onto the list. Sorry for the noise. On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 11:09 AM Zach Laine <whatwasthataddress(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 6:35 AM Mathias Gaunard < > mathias.gaunard(a)ens-lyon.org> wrote: > >> On Sat, 26 Oct 2019 at 02:11, Zach Laine via Boost-users >> <boost-users(a)lists.boost.org> wrote: >> > >> > About 14 months ago I posted the same thing. There was significant >> work that needed to be done to Boost.Text (the proposed library), and I was >> a bit burned out. >> > >> > Now I've managed to make the necessary changes, and I feel the library >> is ready for review, if there is interest. >> > >> > This library, in part, is something I want to standardize. >> > >> > It started as a better string library for namespace "std2", with >> minimal Unicode support. Though "std2" will almost certainly never happen >> now, those string types are still in there, and the library has grown to >> also include all the Unicode features most users will ever need. >> > >> > Github: https://github.com/tzlaine/text >> > Online docs: https://tzlaine.github.io/text >> >> I would start by removing the superlative statements about Unicode >> being "hard" or "crazy". >> It's not that complicated compared to the actual hard problems that >> software engineers solve everyday. The only thing is that people >> misunderstand what the scope of Unicode is, it's not just an encoding, >> it's a a database and a set of algorithms (relying on said database) >> to facilitate natural text processing of arbitrary scripts, and does >> compromises to integrate with existing industry practices prior to all >> those scripts being brought together under the same umbrella. >> > > Right. Unicode encodes all natural languages that anyone has taken the > time to put into Unicode. I stand by the implication that natural > languages are crazy. > > >> Now the string/container/memory management, this is quite irrelevant. >> That sort of stuff has nothing to do with Unicode and I certainly do >> not want some Unicode library to mess with the way I am organizing how >> my data is stored in memory. >> Your rope etc. containers belong in a completely independent library. >> > > So then maybe don't use those parts? They're independent; you don't have > to use them to use the Unicode algorithms. > > >> What's important is providing an efficient Unicode character database, >> and implementing the algorithms in a way that is generic, working for >> arbitrary ranges and being able to be lazily evaluated (i.e. range >> adaptors). >> I already did all that work more than 10 years ago as a two-month GSoC >> project, though there are some limitations since at that time ranges >> and ranges adaptors were still fairly new ideas for C++. It does >> however provide a generic framework to define arbitrary algorithms >> that can be evaluated either lazily or eagerly. >> > > Clearly you are more capable than I am. It took me a lot longer to do > than 2 months. Why did you never submit this for a Boost review? You were > thinking about it, ~10 years ago, but you never did.... > > >> To be honest I can't say I find your library to be much of an >> improvement, at least in terms of usability, since the programming >> interface seems more constrained (why don't things work with arbitrary >> ranges rather than this "text" containers) > > > They do, of course. I'm not sure why it is you think otherwise. > > >> and verbose (just look at >> the code to do transcoding with iterators), > > > Are you referring to the verbosity of: > > char const * some_utf8 = /* ... */ ; > out = std::ranges::copy(boost::text::as_utf32(some_utf8), out); > > , or: > > out = boost::text::transcode_utf_8_to_32(utf8_first, utf8_last, out); > > , or something else? > > >> the set of features is >> quite small, > > > That is quite intentional. I want to standardize *basic* Unicode > support. I feel that what I have in Boost.Text is the basic set that users > will need, just to support languages or formatting conventions that are not > common in their favorite environment. For instance, today there is no > standard way of taking UTF-8 and turning it into UTF-16, or vice versa; > this library is intended to work at that level. That is, it is intended to > fill in needless gaps in Unicode support that exist in C++ -- gaps that no > other major language besides C has. It is specifically not intended to > replace all ICU functionality. Do you have specific things in mind that > you think ~90% of Unicode-aware C++ users will need? Note that I did not > say 100%. > > >> and that the database itself is not even accessible, > > > That's also intentional. Another goal of the library is to make Unicode > as simple as possible for naive users who just want to do the basics. If I > find requests for any new feature that has a compelling use case, I'll add > that. > > >> and >> last I remember your implementation was ridiculously bloated in size. >> > > I don't consider 1.5MB for a database containing all human languages in > widespread use on computers to be a ridiculous size, but YMMV. > > >> It also doesn't provide the ability to do fast substring search, which >> you'd typically do by searching for a substring at the character >> encoding level and then eliminating matches that do not fall on a >> satisfying boundary, instead suggesting to do the search at the >> grapheme level which is much slower, and the facility to test for >> boundary isn't provided anyway. >> > > I honestly don't know what you mean here. If you use the text::text or > text::string types, those are just contiguous sequences of bits, like a > std::vector or std::string. text::text exposes iterators to those bits > which can be used to get grapheme, code point, and/or UTF-8 byte views of > the underlying data. If you are using something else besides text::text or > text::string two types, you presumably have access to your own bits in your > own representation. What prevents you from doing whatever substring search > you like, via std::search(), std::ranges::includes(), or something else? > Boost.Text is not intended as a string algorithms library. > > I'm pretty sure I made similar comments in the past, but I don't feel >> like any of them has been addressed. >> > > I think you're referring to this email you sent in the Boost.Text > interest thread from 14 months ago: > > """ > The Unicode library I did as a SoC project in 2009 was significantly > smaller than that and if I recall correctly it has more data than the one > in your library. > Clearly some work can be done here to better optimize the database size. > """ > > I did make it a bit smaller. The other comments are new. > > Zach > >

1 0

Change TCP_USER_TIMEOUT
by JH 01 Nov '19

01 Nov '19

Hi, I am using boost asio TCP socket in my device application for network connection in Linux platform. I am troubled currently by long TCP tmeout issues in a device to switch application between WiFi and 4G LTE. If my application TCP was connected via 4G LTE initially, when WiFi is available, the network is switched to WiFi, but the application TCP connection would have 30 minutes timeout before it terminated the 4G LTE and reconnects to WiFi. That 30 minutes is too long. I checked TCP document for TCP_USER_TIMEOUT: TCP_USER_TIMEOUT Decreasing user timeouts allows applications to "fail fast", if so desired. Otherwise, failure may take up to 20 minutes with the current system defaults in a normal WAN environment. My question is, in boost asio socket, is there an API to change TCP_USER_TIMEOUT? Appreciate if showing an example or point me to a document how to do it. Thank you. Kind regards, - jh

2 3

Re: [boost] [Boost-users] Interest in a Unicode library for Boost?
by Zach Laine 30 Oct '19

30 Oct '19

On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 4:51 AM Leon Mlakar <leon(a)digiverse.si> wrote: > On 29.10.2019 17:11, Zach Laine wrote: > > > > >> - for the sake of completeness the normalization type used at the text >> level ought to be a policy parameter; although I do understand your >> arguments against it I think it should be there even at the cost of >> different text types being inoperable without conversions >> > > I disagree. Policy parameters are bad for reasoning. If I see a > text::text, as things currently stand, I know that it is stored as a > contiguous array of UTF-8, and that it is normalized FCC. If I add a > template parameter to control the normalization, I change the invariants of > the type. Types with different invariants should have different names. To > do otherwise is a violation of the single responsibility principle. > > Okay, the policy or not the policy was not my point ... it was to allow > for different underlying normalizations. Granted, it may only be important > to (a few) corner cases where input and/or output normalizations are given, > and your assessment that it may not be worth the effort is reasonable ... > unless you are aiming towards adding to the standard. Then the completeness > imho becomes more important. > > Frankly, I'm not proficient enough in the meta-programming to make a > strong case either for policy parameter or for explicit types/templates. I > just happen to prefer the policy based approach. > Understood. FWIW, the algorithms provided by Boost.Text make it possible to use any normalization representation, though at times conversions may be necessary. Some of those conversions are mandated by the Unicode standard itself -- you cannot feed NFC, NFKC, or NFKC to the collation algorithm, for instance (though implementations are possible for NFD and FCC). > > > - at the text level I'm not sure I'm willing to cope with different >> fundamental text types; I just want to use boost::text::text, pretty >> much the same as I use std::string as an alias to much more complex >> class template; heck, even at the string layer I'd probably prefer >> rope/contiguous concept to be a policy parameter to the same type >> template. >> > > That would be like adding a template parameter to std::vector that makes > it act like a std::deque for certain values of that parameter. Changing > the space and time complexity of a type by changing a template parameter is > the wrong answer. > > No, that is not making the std::vector to act as std::deque - the text > would still remain the text and act as a text, with the same interface. > It's more like FIFO implementation using either std::vector or std::dequeu > for its store - since in both cases the FIFO has the same interface and > functionally behaves the same, I really don't want two distinct types. The > type template with the parameter that makes the choice between the > underlying storage seems much more natural to me. > You example highlights my point. For N inputs to your FIFO queue, a deque underlying implementation is worst-case O(N). A vector implementation is worst-case O(N*N). The invariants of the type matter, and they matter a lot. Saying a foo may be like a bar or like a baz only work when bar and baz are so similar that you cannot observe a difference in the behavior of foo. Zach

1 0

[SPAM] istream_iterator_limited
by Frederick Gotham 28 Oct '19

28 Oct '19

- - - - WHY I NEEDED THIS: I wanted to open a file using "ifstream", and then I wanted to read 32 bytes from the file and feed them directly into boost::algorithm::hex. Unfortunately I couldn't do this because 'hex' takes two iterators [begin,end), and there's no alternative function "hex_n". So I had to read the file into a string first, and then pass the string to 'hex'. - - - - THE IDEA I CAME UP WITH: Open the file using "ifstream", and then use a special iterator that will stop reading from the file after 32 bytes, with syntax like this: ifstream logfile("log.txt"); hex( istream_iterator_limited<char>(logfile,32), istream_iterator_limited<char>(), g_some_global_container.begin() ); - - - - SAMPLE CODE: #include <cstddef> /* size_t */ #include <iterator> /* istream_iterator */ template <typename T> class istream_iterator_limited : public std::istream_iterator<T> { protected: std::size_t const m_limit; std::size_t m_current_count; public: /* Shorter names */ typedef std::istream_iterator<T> Base; typedef istream_iterator_limited<T> This; istream_iterator_limited(typename Base::istream_type &obj_stream, size_t const arg_limit) : Base(obj_stream), m_limit(arg_limit), m_current_count (1) { /* The initialiser list above does all the construction work */ } istream_iterator_limited(void) /* This gives the End-Of-Stream iterator */ : Base() , m_limit(0), m_current_count(1) { /* The initialiser list above does all the construction work */ } This &operator++(void) { if ( m_limit <= m_current_count ) { Base::operator=( Base() ); /* Becomes End-Of- Stream iterator */ } else { ++m_current_count; Base::operator++(); } return *this; } }; #include <algorithm> /* copy */ #include <string> /* string */ #include <sstream> /* istringstream */ #include <iostream> /* cout, endl */ #include <iterator> /* back_inserter */ auto main(void) -> int { std::istringstream iss("123456789"); std::string str; /* Let's use copy to read 5 char's into our string */ std::copy( istream_iterator_limited<char>(iss,5), istream_iterator_limited<char>(), std::back_inserter(str) ); std::cout << str << std::endl; str.clear(); /* Get another 3 */ std::copy( istream_iterator_limited<char>(iss,3), istream_iterator_limited<char>(), std::back_inserter(str) ); std::cout << str << std::endl; }

1 0

Re: [boost] disjoint_sets?
by Glen Fernandes 27 Oct '19

27 Oct '19

Peter wrote: > At some point we removed the disjoint_sets module from the develop branch, > but it's still on master. When are we going to remove it from master as > well? The relevant changes need to be merged from Graph develop to master, before we can retire the disjoint_sets repository entirely. John, any concerns about doing this now, before the 1.72 release progresses? Glen

1 0

disjoint_sets?
by Peter Dimov 25 Oct '19

25 Oct '19

At some point we removed the disjoint_sets module from the develop branch, but it's still on master. When are we going to remove it from master as well?

1 0

question re BOOST_NO_EXCEPTION
by Robert Ramey 25 Oct '19

25 Oct '19

I want to detect whether or not the -no_exception compile time flag has been used on gcc/clang. Will BOOST_NO_EXCEPTIONS do this? If not is there something I can use? Robert Ramey

5 10

Multi-Dimensional Dynamic Array Boost Library Proposal
by Richard Hogaboom 24 Oct '19

24 Oct '19

I've written a library at GitHub/rahogaboom/daa that does dynamic array allocation in ptr to ptr ... style that is very simple to use(only two routines), header file only, can allocate an unlimited number of dimensions with subscripts for each dimension starting at an arbitrary number e.g. 0, 1, -5 etc, can allocate anything you can take sizeof() and allocates all in one contiguous block(stack, heap) for easy freeing. I'm aware of the Boost.MultiArray library, however, I think daa has some advantages. Specifically, a. each dimension has it's own starting subscript b. it's relative simplicity(2 routines) c. it's longevity - 30 years and two articles d. also can be used in a C only environment. Following is the points noted in the GitHub README.md: |Library: daa.hpp Dynamic Array Allocator - C++ header file only library - ptr to ptr to ... style arbitrary N dimensional array allocator of anything you can take sizeof() - arbitrary starting subscript(0, 1, -10, ...) for each separate dimension - Note: for each array dimension the starting subscript and dimension size determine the valid subscripts for that dimension - any index outside that range is invalid and will give unpredictable results - allocates anything of any type(double, int, long, struct, ...) - one contiguous block allocation of memory for all ptr's and data(locality of reference and easy free()) - array or slices of array can be passed to subroutines to any depth, modified there, and be seen at all levels - simple library, two routines(das()(calculate space needed) and daa()(allocate ptr to ptr ... array)) - no library dependencies(except standard header files) - initialization pointer argument set to instance of initialized type or NULL for no initialization - implemented by a recursive routine(ptr_init()) which calls two other different recursive routines(off() and doff()) - see article in Embedded Systems Programming, Dec. 2000, "Flexible Dynamic Array Allocation"(included) - see article in The C Users Journal, Nov. 1990. "A Flexible Dynamic Array Allocator"(included) - 18 verification tests that show code usage examples, see daa_test.cpp - see cut/paste Examples section and API(das(), daa()) section below - a daa-compile.tar file is provided with a non-header compiled(clang, clang++, gcc, g++) version - for an excellent reference on this type of array(ptr to ptr to ...) access see Numerical Recipes in C, Press, Flannery, Teukolsky, and Vettering, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pg. 20-23. Ch. 1 Preliminaries -> 1.2 Some C Conventions for Scientific Computing -> Matrices and Two-Dimensional Arrays. From the above reference read: 'Here is our bottom line: We avoid the fixed-size two-dimensional arrays of C as being unsuitable data structures for representing matrices in scientific computing. We adopt instead the convention “pointer to array of pointers,” with the array elements pointing to the first element in the rows of each matrix.' - this file is the entire documentation needed to use the library - Author: Richard Hogaboom, richard.hogaboom(a)gmail.com| | Usage: - das() - find size necessary malloc()(or whatever memory allocation routine) - allocate memory daa() - populate allocated memory - allocate auto stack or static area storage e.g. unsigned char mem[SIZE] das() - determine if array will fit in mem[] daa() - populate allocated memory | |Example:| | int err_code = 0; int asize = 0; char *mem_ptr; unsigned int d[4] = {3, 5, 4, 2}; /* dimensions */ int st[4] = {-1, -5, 10, 0}; /* starting subscripts */ double ****array = NULL; /* array pointer */ asize = das(sizeof(double), 4, d, &err_code); mem_ptr = (char *)malloc(asize); array = (double ****) daa(sizeof(double), 4, d, st, &err_code, mem_ptr, NULL);| | double d = array[-1][-5][10][0];| -- Richard A Hogaboom 16 Alprilla Farm Road Hopkinton, MA 01748-1922 richard.hogaboom(a)gmail.com www.linkedin.com/in/richardhogaboom/ www.github.com/rahogaboom M508-330-3775

2 1

Boost logo font?
by Hans Dembinski 23 Oct '19

23 Oct '19

Dear all, does someone remember which font was used for the Boost logo on boost.org? Is it possible to get this font to make another logo? I want to make a logo for Boost.Histogram. Best regards, Hans

4 11

New JSON library from the maker of Beast!
by Vinnie Falco 23 Oct '19

23 Oct '19

I've been working on a massively-multiplayer online blackjack casino server, called Beast Lounge [1]. The server and client communicate using JSON-RPC over WebSocket. I have developed a brand-new JSON library for this project, in accordance with the following design goals: * Robust support for custom allocators throughout. * Array and object interfaces closely track their corresponding C++20 container equivalents. * Use `std::basic_string` for strings. * Minimize use of templates for reduced compilation times. * Parsers and serializers work incrementally (['online algorithms]). * Elements in objects may also be iterated in insertion order. You can see the JSON library in development here: https://github.com/vinniefalco/json Is there any interest in proposing this for Boost? I'm happy to hear feedback or answer questions about this library. Feel free to open an issue on the repository, or reply here. Thanks [1] <https://github.com/vinniefalco/BeastLounge>

21 68