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Another question about Boost Documentation
by Robert Ramey 19 Aug '24

19 Aug '24

There are many places where the boostbook xml/xsl files make reference to external files that we have no control of. Here is an example from modular-boost/tools/boostbook/xsl/docbook.xsl <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" version="1.0"> <xsl:import href="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/common/common.xsl"/> <xsl:include href="reference.xsl"/> ... This means that if something changes in docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/common/common.xsl We'll have problems when we try to build documentation. This recently happened to me and it was a bitch to find. I spent some time looking around for the right way to fix this and came upon the concept of XML catalogs as explained here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_catalog#Example_Catalog.xml Seems to me that the maintainer of boostbook should verify that my understanding is correct and update boostbook files accordingly. Actually, I'd be grateful to any insight on this subject that anyone might provide. Robert Ramey

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Re: [boost] [compute] Maintenance status
by René Eng 18 Aug '24

18 Aug '24

Hi all I am no expert in OpenCL nor GPGPU, but very interested in this topic and would love to learn more about it. I volunteer to take care of the maintenance of this library. Since I have no experience with the Boost way of handling PRs etc., I guess would need some support from an experienced library maintainer in the beginning. Until now I was a silent reader here, so let me shortly introduce myself: My name is René Eng, 57 years old, living in Switzerland. I am working as a C++ developer for more than 20 years, in the high performance/low latency area. I have experience with some other Boost sub-libraries, in the past also used b2 to build Boost when there were no packages available yet. If there is no-one else with more experience in this topic, who wants to take over this library, I would. This week I am on holiday, so I would actually start to take a closer look into it next week. Best regards René Von meinem iPhone gesendet > Am 21.07.2024 um 17:04 schrieb Joaquin M López Muñoz via Boost <boost(a)lists.boost.org>: > It was brought to my attention that Boost.Compute seems to be all but abandoned: > no updates in three years, more than 100 issues filed, 27 unattended PRs. This is a > shame given that the library looks pretty popular based on GH stars and references > on Internet. Are there volunteers to take on maintenance of the library? > > Best, > > Joaquin M Lopez Munoz > > > _______________________________________________ > Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost

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Option 1: Alliance stewardship of Boost
by Vinnie Falco 17 Aug '24

17 Aug '24

I believe this is important enough that it needs a thread of discussion split from the original at https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2024/08/257347.php Some important details seem to have been lost in the conversation. I will summarize the Alliance position in a nutshell: The Alliance will become Boost's steward. Then, we shall assist the Boost Software Commons (a new non-profit created on March 1, 2024) to attain financial independence. Finally we will transfer the shared assets to this new non-profit. Also, I love Boost and I would like the opportunity to help it become a many-generational institution singularly driven to support library development. The message below is reposted in its entirety and without modification. --- I want to start by expressing my gratitude to Kristen, who kept an open and friendly line of communication with me for the last several months. It is unpaid volunteer work, difficult at times, and I appreciate her effort. As a passionate contributor to Boost, I am excited to see renewed growth and positive change in the project. The Boost Foundation has generously offered that the community may determine if the Alliance should be the steward of Boost’s shared resources. The term steward instead of owner is deliberate, as the former reflects the behavior which respects the Boost tradition of consensus-driven decisions. In this communiqué I would like to explore what option 1 looks like from an operational perspective (wearing my Alliance president hat) and then outline my opinion as the author of four Boost libraries. The Alliance is already the largest financial sponsor of the Boost project. Going with the first option means that our relationship to Boost would become formal. What would happen is this: 1. The Alliance becomes the registrant of the boost.org domain. This may take time, but effectively immediately after going with option 1, the Alliance shall fulfill our Domain Name Purchase Agreement under substantially similar terms including the launch of the Beman Scholarship Fund (if there is agreement). The Alliance shall reimburse the Foundation for any and all reasonable legal expenses incurred for both changes of domain ownership, including the estate fees. 2. The Alliance assumes all costs and responsibility to ensure that the boost.org domain registration does not expire, the SSL certificates are renewed and up to date, and that quarterly transparency reports are published to the mailing list apprising the community on the status of its registration. 3. The Alliance assumes all costs and responsibility for maintaining Boost’s cloud services (“Services”). This includes but is not limited to the wowbagger server, the new website, the new mailing list service, the existing mailgun account, and other services which may be required to support Boost’s infrastructure. The mailing list will be upgraded but continue to function as it is currently. Quarterly transparency reports will be published to the mailing list detailing the ongoing expenses and condition of these resources. 4. While the Alliance is the steward of the domain and cloud services, the content of the website and related web applications, such as the release building process, is controlled by the Boost GitHub Organization. Including but not limited to the repositories here: https://github.com/boostorg/website https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2 https://github.com/boostorg/website-v2-docs Changes made to these repositories will go through the existing pull request and review process, which requires community consensus. The Owners, defined as the set of users in the Boost GitHub Organization which have the Owner role, maintain the responsibility for determining consensus. 5. When the Boost community cannot achieve consensus, the responsibility for making a directional decision shall pass to the Boost Software Commons (“Commons”), a 501(c)(3) non-profit registered in Delaware on March 1, 2024, which is not controlled by the Alliance and whose board currently consists of Boost authors. The Commons is now in hibernation until it is needed. 6. The Alliance shall endeavor to help the Commons become capable of independently financing Boost’s infrastructure. The Services cost about $13,000 a year to run, excluding wowbagger and the downloads hosting costs. Our plans include: * Establishing a Boost Patreon * Sales of Boost-branded products at conferences and by mail * Soliciting donations from corporate and private sponsors * Optimizing the Services to reduce cost In all cases, proceeds from fundraising shall go directly to the Commons. 7. When fundraising levels reach the threshold necessary to finance the Services, or earlier upon request by the Commons, the Alliance shall transfer ownership of the boost.org domain to them. At the Commons’ option, the Alliance may continue administering the Services. Why The C++ Alliance? I believe that the Boost Foundation’s governance rules and board composition are simply not structured to put the best interests of Boost first, as can be seen from their own published minutes. The Boost project has been in decline for several years and the Alliance would like the opportunity to do something about it, in a way that is consistent with the project’s values. As our plans require significant financial investments (which we are happy to make), changes are needed. Option 1, Alliance stewardship of shared assets, provides Boost with the opportunity to refresh the foundations of the organization with new ideas, talent, and resources. It offers rescue from stagnation and the rare opportunity to restructure itself to better reflect the project’s changing needs from its inception 26 years ago. While I am excited at the possibility of realizing a dream to increase Boost participation, I am also mindful of the enormous responsibility this comes with. Fortunately I will not have to bear this alone, as there are many new and existing volunteers who are ready to support Boost going forward and ensure its longevity. Thank you for your support!

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[release] Boost.1.86.0
by Marshall Clow 16 Aug '24

16 Aug '24

Release 1.86.0 of the Boost C++ Libraries is now available. These open-source libraries work well with the C++ Standard Library, and are usable across a broad spectrum of applications. The Boost license encourages both commercial and non-commercial use. The release contains numerous enhancements and bug fixes for existing libraries. For details, including download links, see <http://www.boost.org/users/news/version_1.86.0> You can also download directly from: <https://archives.boost.io/release/1.86.0/source/> To install this release on your system, see <http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/release/more/getting_started/index.html> Thanks to everyone who participated in this release. -- The Boost Release Team Marshall Clow, Glen Fernandes, Ion Ion Gaztañaga

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[Boost][BGL] new planar_vertex_coloring.hpp ?
by hermann＠stamm-wilbrandt.de 15 Aug '24

15 Aug '24

I have some experience in using BGL and porting my non-BGL graph code to BGL. I want to create pull request for generating random maximal planar graphs. I have 1994 technical report non-BGL implementation on gihub. So before porting that, I want to get some experience on the Boost pull request and review process. I made use of the many planar graph algorithms in straight_line_graphviz.cpp gist: https://gist.github.com/Hermann-SW/99d151a273d290ee0d843c79b2da26a8 So I thought on a providing planar graph vertex coloring algorthm(s) as handson. I would start by taking https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_85_0/libs/graph/doc/sequential_vertex_colo… as a template for "planar_vertex_coloring.hpp". My plan is to first port my existing fast linear time "six_coloring()" https://github.com/Hermann-SW/planar_graph_playground/blob/main/c%2B%2B/und… and learn about the review process with it. Later I would implement one of the several linear time "five_coloring()" algorithms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_color_theorem#Linear_time_five-coloring_… And probably the quadratic time "four_coloring()" algorithm mentioned there as well. I looked at commits in Boost graph directory and there is not that much recent activity. Is my plan and the steps outlined the right way to start? Regards, Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt.

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Recommended way of doing concurrency with Boost
by Thomas Fowlery 14 Aug '24

14 Aug '24

Hi all, I'm planning to start working on a new Web3 project and I'm trying to decide how I should approach doing concurrency with C++ and Boost. It seems like using callback-passing style with Asio has been pretty popular historically. However, having worked with other modern languages with first-class async support, this feels a bit primitive. I've heard about C++20 coroutines and it seems like Boost has a library for it (Cobalt). However, it's relatively new, so I'm curious if anyone had experience with it and is it mature for production. I see that Asio also has coroutine support, so what's the difference? The third option I'm considering is using fibers. I like this option in principle because the resulting code is very clean and looks like normal synchronous code. However, I haven't seen many big examples/projects using Boost.Fiber with Boost.Asio. Is this something people are doing out in the wild? Does Asio support Fibers well? Best regards, Thomas

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Re: [boost] [Boost-users] [release] Boost.1.86.0
by Vinnie Falco 14 Aug '24

14 Aug '24

On Wed, Aug 14, 2024 at 11:46 AM Andrea Bocci <fwyzard(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Right, because posting to a social network owned by an extremist, fascist, racist and nazi-apologist should do great for improving Boost's image. I completely understand your concerns about this particular platform. Please understand that our goal in sharing updates here is simply to reach more people and make Boost's work visible, not to endorse or align with any particular ideology. I think a strong online presence can help us connect with more people who care about our libraries, and that ultimately benefits everyone involved. That being said, I appreciate your feedback and in the future we should definitely consider the nuances of social media platforms when deciding how to share information. Perhaps we can explore additional ways to share updates that still reach a wide audience, while also being mindful of the values and principles we want to uphold? Thanks

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[unordered] GDB pretty-printer display bikeshedding
by Braden Ganetsky 14 Aug '24

14 Aug '24

Hi all, I want some opinions on the display printout for the GDB pretty-printers I'm working on, for the Unordered library. I have a sample printout in this GitHub gist here. (https://gist.github.com/k3DW/ead86d748aa4c4bba3f9f67f09521ba5) Everything at this link is already implemented and functional in my branch. I want opinions on how it looks. I have a few specific questions for everyone, but I'll take any other comments that don't belong with these questions below. 1. For the container display format, I matched what the standard library containers do. Should the beginning be shortened to `boost::unordered_map` instead of the current display of `boost::unordered::unordered_map`? The same question applies to all of the other containers. Does the middle namespace `unordered` cause too much visual noise? 2. For the iterators, is `iterator = {...}` a good enough format? Or should this iterator also specify the container type it came from instead of just `iterator`? I prefer it as I wrote it, but I am only one member of the community. 3. Any suggestions for end iterators other than simply `{ end iterator }`? Again, I like it this way, but I want to know if other people feel similarly. 4. To print the stats, I implemented a custom GDB command called "print_stats" that behaves exactly like "print", except it prints an open-addressing container's stats instead of its elements. Is the name "print_stats" alright to use in this scenario? Or should it be something like "boost_unordered_print_stats" to mitigate against name collisions? Thanks, Braden

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Bug fixed inline GDB pretty printing
by Niall Douglas 13 Aug '24

13 Aug '24

Re: my previous guide to writing inline GDB pretty printers, it turns out it had bugs. Here is how to fix them. Firstly, my thanks to Braden Ganetsky for reporting the bugs, then pair programming over Slack with me late last night to diagnose and fix the issues. We have cowritten a conversion script which we now believe is actually correct -- it takes a Python GDB pretty printer, and emits a C (not C++) header file with all the correct markup. It can be found at: https://github.com/ned14/quickcpplib/blob/master/scripts/generate_gdb_print… The first bug fixed is correct escaping: we need to double escape the original Python in the right kind of way to cause the escaped inline assembler block to emit the right escaped text for GDB to load it correct as Python. Getting the double escaping correct is tricky, but we think we have it now. The second bug fixed is correct composure of multiple inline GDB pretty printers - Braden found only the first was having any effect. It turns out this is due to a misreading of the GDB docs from https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb.html/dotdebug_005fgdb_005… where this example: ``` asm( ".pushsection \".debug_gdb_scripts\", \"MS\",@progbits,1\n" ".byte " XSTRING (SECTION_SCRIPT_ID_PYTHON_TEXT) "\n" ".ascii \"gdb.inlined-script\\n\"\n" ".ascii \"class test_cmd (gdb.Command):\\n\"\n" ... ``` ... does not make it clear that the string "gdb.inlined-script" is actually the unique identifier of that script used to eliminate duplicates. It needs to be unique per inlined script unless you specifically want duplicates, and our Python converter above has remedied this. Generally you ought to name it after your library and maybe possibly a git SHA or version depending on how unstable your library is, and ensure that the pretty printer matches only that version of your library. Thanks once again to Braden for his help. Note that the Outcome GDB pretty printer which has shipped in the pending Boost release is buggy and will not work properly. The next Boost release will fix it. You can of course copy the fixed pretty printer from the github repo over this Boost release. Niall

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[release] Boost 1.86.0 Release Candidate 1 is available
by Marshall Clow 13 Aug '24

13 Aug '24

The first release candidates for the 1.86.0 release are now available at: <https://boostorg.jfrog.io/artifactory/main/release/1.86.0/source/> The SHA256 checksums are as follows: 2575e74ffc3ef1cd0babac2c1ee8bdb5782a0ee672b1912da40e5b4b591ca01f boost_1_86_0_rc1.tar.gz cd20a5694e753683e1dc2ee10e2d1bb11704e65893ebcc6ced234ba68e5d8646 boost_1_86_0_rc1.zip 413ee9d5754d0ac5994a3bf70c3b5606b10f33824fdd56cf04d425f2fc6bb8ce boost_1_86_0_rc1.7z 1bed88e40401b2cb7a1f76d4bab499e352fa4d0c5f31c0dbae64e24d34d7513b boost_1_86_0_rc1.tar.bz2 As always, the release managers would appreciate it if you download the candidate of your choice and give building it a try. Please report both success and failure, and anything else that is noteworthy. -- The Release managers

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