Re: [Boost-users] [bind] & [function] How do I store member functions with generalised arguments for later invocation?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [bind] & [function] How do I store member functions with generalised arguments for later invocation?
From: Nat Goodspeed (nat_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-06-04 09:41:55

Steve Lorimer wrote:

> a way to create a generalised 
> version of my "event" class, would be to have a single "event" class 
> which has a boost::function to store a functor created using boost::bind 
> on my object and member funciton. 

This is what I gleaned from your previous post, yes: the idea that you 
can define a single boost::function signature for your queue items 
because all the binding really happens on the producer side.

> I'd then use templatised helper 
> functions for the general forms of using boost::bind. 

Well, let me ask you this question. How important is it to you to hide 
use of boost::bind (or std::tr1::bind?) from your coders?

My organization had a big discussion about this a couple years ago. 
Those who came to C++ from Java, and had no experience with (e.g.) 
Python, found function/bind upsetting and magical and wanted it safely 
buried beneath an API layer of our own. Those who have grown accustomed 
to the power of the Callable concept are used to boost::bind() expressions.

We ultimately decided that reading boost::bind() expressions was less 
ugly than the code it would take to conceal them. The call to our API 
would resemble the boost::bind() call anyway.

That said, boost::signals2::slot (in boost/signals2/slot.hpp) does wrap 
a bind() call in a way that you might adapt if this is what you want.