Boost is an interesting set of C++ libraries that can be found at http://www.boost.org/. It provides all sorts, from lambda functions to regular expressions. A full list of the libraries included can be found at http://www.boost.org/libs/libraries.htm.

Boost is an example of some of the amazing things which can be accomplised with templates and C++. A few examples shamelessly ripped from the documentation.

Lambda functions

list<int> v(10); for_each(v.begin(), v.end(), _1 = 1);

The expression _1 = 1 creates a lambda functor which assigns the value 1 to every element in v.

vector<int*> vp(10); sort(vp.begin(), vp.end(), *_1 > *_2);

In this call to sort, we are sorting the elements by their contents in descending order.

Yes, this is still C++. For those interested in Python, perhaps Boost.Python is somewhat useful:

C++ code

struct World {

World(std::string msg): msg(msg) {} // added constructor void set(std::string msg) { this->msg = msg; } std::string greet() { return msg; } std::string msg;

};

And exporting the class

1. include <boost/python.hpp>

using namespace boost::python;

BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(hello) {

class_<World>("World", init<std::string>())

.def("greet", &World::greet) .def("set", &World::set)

;

}

And what it is like in Python

import hello planet = hello.World() planet.set('howdy') planet.greet()

'howdy'

Not all compilers are able to compile Boost. An interesting read is http://www.boost.org/status/compiler_status.html where there are tests done on each compiler to see whether they are able to compile all the boost test cases.

Boost used a modified Jam as its build system rather than Makefiles.