[Boost-users] [Review] Boost.Convert library is ongoing

Subject: [Boost-users] [Review] Boost.Convert library is ongoing
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-04-26 08:39:32

Since there have been no reviews of this library yet, this is another 
reminder that formal review of the Boost.Convert library by Vladimir 
Batov is ongoing and ends on May 2.

If you have felt that lexical_cast is not flexible enough for use,
please take a look at this library and review it.

***************
* Its Purpose *
***************

The library builds on the past boost::lexical_cast experience, then
takes those conversion-related ideas further to suit better today's
applications and programing needs. It still offers simple, minimal
interface, familiar conversion behavior and additionally provides:

*    throwing and non-throwing conversion-failure behavior;
*    support for the default/fallback value to be returned when 
conversion fails;
*    two types of the conversion-failure check - basic/simple and 
better/safe;
*    formatting support based on the standard std::streams and
std::stream-based manipulators (like std::hex, std::scientific, etc.);
*    support for different locales;
*    support for boost::range-compliant char and wchar_t-based containers;
*    no DefaultConstructibility requirement for the Target/Destination type;
*    consistent framework to uniformly incorporate any type-to-type
conversions, extensibility and additional room to grow.

With its present support for string-to-type and type-to-string
conversions it is an essential tool for applications making extensive
use of configuration or MS-Windows-Registry-style files or having to
process/prepare considerable amounts of data in, say, XML, etc. More
so, it is easily extendable to accommodate, specialize and uniformly
deploy new user-defined type-to-type conversions.

*******************
* Where to get it *
*******************

You can get the library, using Subversion, from 
https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/convert.

The HTML documentation is part of the distribution and can be found at 
libs/convert/index.html in the distribution above.

********************
* Writing a review *
********************

The reviews and all comments should be submitted to the developers list,
and the email should have "[convert] Review" at the beginning of the 
subject line to make sure it's not missed.

Please explicitly state in your review whether the library should be
accepted.

The general review checklist:

     - What is your evaluation of the design?
     - What is your evaluation of the implementation?
     - What is your evaluation of the documentation?
     - What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the
       library?
     - Did you try to use the library?  With what compiler?  Did you
       have any problems?
     - How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A
       quick reading? In-depth study?
     - Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain?

And finally, every review should answer this question:

     - Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library?

Be sure to say this explicitly so that your other comments don't
obscure your overall opinion.

Edward Diener,
Review Manager