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Annotated edit history of Boost version 1, including all changes. View license author blame.
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1 SamJansen 1 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].
2
3 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.
4
5 ----
6
7 Lambda functions:
8
9 list<int> v(10);
10 for_each(v.begin(), v.end(), _1 = 1);
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12 The expression _1 = 1 creates a lambda functor which assigns the value 1 to every element in v.
13
14 vector<int*> vp(10);
15 sort(vp.begin(), vp.end(), *_1 > *_2);
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17 In this call to sort, we are sorting the elements by their contents in descending order.
18
19 ----
20
21 Yes, this is still [C++]. For those interested in Python, perhaps Boost.Python is somewhat useful:
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23 C++ code:
24
25 struct World
26 {
27 World(std::string msg): msg(msg) {} // added constructor
28 void set(std::string msg) { this->msg = msg; }
29 std::string greet() { return msg; }
30 std::string msg;
31 };
32
33 And exporting the class:
34
35 #include <boost/python.hpp>
36 using namespace boost::python;
37
38 BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(hello)
39 {
40 class_<World>("World", init<std::string>())
41 .def("greet", &World::greet)
42 .def("set", &World::set)
43 ;
44 }
45
46 And what it is like in Python:
47
48 >>> import hello
49 >>> planet = hello.World()
50 >>> planet.set('howdy')
51 >>> planet.greet()
52 'howdy'
53
54 ----
55
56 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.
57
58 Boost used a modified Jam as its build system rather than Makefiles.