[Boost-users] Re: Problem 2 with Boost 1.31.0 Regex for tru64cxx65

From: Markus Schöpflin (markus.schoepflin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-05-02 05:36:53

Richard Hadsell wrote:

> Richard Hadsell wrote:
> 
>> Markus Schöpflin wrote:
>>
>>> - When compiling boost you will see several warnings (and one error!) 
>>> about the use of assert on pointer types. These are caused by a bug 
>>> in the system header files which force the argument for assert() to 
>>> int. This can be fixed by editing the header file 
>>> "/usr/include/assert.h".
>>
>> Thanks for the tips.  With regard to this one, was your fix to (a) 
>> change the cast to bool, (b) change the cast to long, or (c) just 
>> eliminate the cast and let the compiler convert to bool?

As the argument to assert() is allowed to be any integral expression I 
simply removed the cast to int. I filed a bug report for this and HP 
acknowledged it but up to now I have no information on if or when a 
fixed header will be released officially.

> Never mind.  I decided to fix the assert complaints by modifying 
> boost/regex/v4/perl_matcher_non_recursive.hpp.  I prefer that to 
> modifiying a system header on every machine and for any future upgrades 
> (unlikely as they are at this point).  I changed all the asserts with an 
> argument of just a pointer to compare the pointer to 0, thus producing a 
> valid bool.  E.g.:
> 
> assert(rep->next.p); => assert(rep->next.p != 0);
> 
> I don't think Boost developers (i.e., John Maddock) would mind.  Do you 
> think they (i.e., he) might even accept this as an improvement?

I can't speak for John, you would have to ask this himself. But as that 
would be a very widespread change and would affect many lines of code 
(essentially every use of assert(p), where p is either a raw pointer or 
a smart pointer) I don't think this would be such a good idea after all.

You could propose to add a new portability macro BOOST_ASSERT() or some 
such but as far as I know the general feeling is that there are too many 
such macros already.

Tru64 is the only plattform I have encountered this problem but on the 
other hand, its the only 64bit plattform I have worked with so far. I 
have no idea if other 64bit plattforms are affected as well.

Markus