Re: [Boost-users] [Accumulators] Are all statistics lazilyevaluated by default?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [Accumulators] Are all statistics lazilyevaluated by default?
From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-05-14 12:14:10

Pete Bartlett wrote:
> Eric Niebler wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> The accumulators library doesn't mandate laziness or eagerness. As 
>> you've noticed, some accumulators come in lazy or eager flavors. Each 
>> accumulator defines an operator() that accepts a sample and a result() 
>> function that extracts the result. Whether the bulk of the work gets 
>> done in operator() (eager) or in result() (lazy) is up to you.
>>
>> HTH,
> 
> Thanks for the reply, Eric. It's great that the framework doesn't force
> things one way or the other. I was particularly interested in some of the
> statistics supplied with the library. With your handy hint for determining
> laziness (i.e. operator() or result() ), I see in the code that moment<> is
> eager. It's just a nit, but the documentation for those statistics would be
> improved IMO if they stated that - this might be as easy as a blanket
> statement that supplied statistics are eager unless otherwise stated.

Agreed, the docs would be improved if this information were provided.

> For my purposes, I need lazy_moment<> which thanks to the framework you've
> come up with is very straightforward to implement. Then things like
> lazy_skewness and lazy_kurtosis will rapidly follow. These will have near
> identical implementations to the existing skewness and kurtosis statistics
> with the exception that all moment<n>s will be replaced by lazy_moment<n>s.
> Half of me thinks there could be value in templating over the "moment type"
> in such cases but perhaps that is over-engineering. 

If you can find a way to use templates to eliminate needless code 
duplication, I wouldn't call that over-engineering.

> In any case, if I did
> offer up lazy versions, might there be interest in including them in the
> library itself?

Patches are welcome. If you add new accumulators, you'll also need to 
submit patches for the docs and the tests, though.

-- 
Eric Niebler
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com