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- <title>Boost Function Object Adapter Library</title>
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- <h1>Improved Function Object Adapters</h1>
- <p>The header <a href="../../boost/functional.hpp">functional.hpp</a>
- provides enhancements to the function object adapters specified in the C++
- Standard Library (sections 20.3.5, through to 20.3.8). The enhancements are
- principally possible due to two changes:</p>
- <ol>
- <li>We use the Boost <tt><a href=
- "../utility/call_traits.htm">call_traits</a></tt> templates to avoid the
- problem of <a href="binders.html#refref">references to references</a>,
- and to improve the efficiency of <a href="mem_fun.html#args">parameter
- passing</a>.</li>
- <li>We use two <a href="function_traits.html">function object traits</a>
- class templates to avoid the need for <tt><a href=
- "ptr_fun.html">ptr_fun</a></tt> with the adapters in this library.</li>
- </ol>
- <h3>Contents</h3>
- <p>The header contains the following function and class templates:</p>
- <table border="1" cellpadding="5" summary="">
- <tr>
- <th align="left"><a href="function_traits.html">Function object
- traits</a></th>
- <td valign="top"><tt>unary_traits<br>
- binary_traits</tt></td>
- <td valign="top">Used to determine the types of function objects' and
- functions' arguments. Eliminate the necessity for
- <tt>ptr_fun</tt>.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <th align="left"><a href="negators.html">Negators</a></th>
- <td valign="top"><tt>unary_negate<br>
- binary_negate<br>
- not1<br>
- not2</tt></td>
- <td valign="top">Based on section 20.3.5 of the standard.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <th align="left"><a href="binders.html">Binders</a></th>
- <td valign="top"><tt>binder1st<br>
- binder2nd<br>
- bind1st<br>
- bind2nd</tt></td>
- <td valign="top">Based on section 20.3.6 of the standard.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <th align="left"><a href="ptr_fun.html">Adapters for pointers to
- functions</a></th>
- <td valign="top"><tt>pointer_to_unary_function<br>
- pointer_to_binary_function<br>
- ptr_fun</tt></td>
- <td valign="top">Based on section 20.3.7 of the standard. Not required
- for use with this library since the binders and negators can adapt
- functions, but may be needed with third party adapters.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <th align="left"><a href="mem_fun.html">Adapters for pointers to member
- functions</a></th>
- <td valign="top"><tt>mem_fun_t<br>
- mem_fun1_t<br>
- const_mem_fun_t<br>
- const_mem_fun1_t<br>
- mem_fun_ref_t<br>
- mem_fun1_ref_t<br>
- const_mem_fun_ref_t<br>
- const_mem_fun1_ref_t<br>
- mem_fun<br>
- mem_fun_ref</tt></td>
- <td valign="top">Based on section 20.3.8 of the standard.</td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- <h3>Usage</h3>
- <p>Using these adapters should be pretty much the same as using the
- standard function object adapters; the only differences are that you need
- to write <tt>boost::</tt> instead of <tt>std::</tt>, and that you will get
- fewer headaches.</p>
- <p>For example, suppose you had a <tt>Person</tt> class that contained a
- <tt>set_name</tt> function:</p>
- <blockquote>
- <pre>
- class Person
- {
- public:
- void set_name(const std::string &name);
- // ...
- };
- </pre>
- </blockquote>
- <p>You could rename a bunch of people in a collection, <tt>c</tt>, by
- writing</p>
- <blockquote>
- <pre>
- std::for_each(c.begin(), c.end(),
- boost::bind2nd(boost::mem_fun_ref(&Person::set_name), "Fred"));
- </pre>
- </blockquote>
- <p>If the standard adapters had been used instead then this code would
- normally fail to compile, because <tt>set_name</tt> takes a reference
- argument. Refer to the comments in the <a href="binders.html#refref">binder
- documentation</a> to explain why this is so.</p>
- <h3>Compiler Compatibility</h3>
- <p>The header and <a href="test/function_test.cpp">test program</a> have been
- compiled with the following compilers:</p>
- <table border="1" cellpadding="5" summary="">
- <tr>
- <th>Compiler</th>
- <th>Comments</th>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td valign="top">Borland C++Builder 4 Update 2</td>
- <td valign="top">No known issues.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td valign="top">Borland C++ 5.5</td>
- <td valign="top">No known issues.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td valign="top">g++ 2.95.2</td>
- <td valign="top">No known issues.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td valign="top">Microsoft Visual C++ Service Pack 3</td>
- <td valign="top">
- Compiler lacks partial specialisation, so this library offers little
- more than is provided by the standard adapters:
- <ul>
- <li>The <tt>call_traits</tt> mechanism is unable to prevent
- references to references, and so the adapters in this library will
- be usable in fewer situations.</li>
- <li>The <tt>function_traits</tt> mechanism is unable to determine
- the argument and result types of functions, therefore
- <tt>ptr_fun</tt> continues to be required to adapt functions.</li>
- </ul>
- </td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- <h3>Future Directions</h3>
- <p>This library's primary focus is to solve the problem of references to
- references while maintaining as much compatibility as possible with the
- standard library. This allows you to use the techniques you read about in
- books and magazines with many of today's compilers.</p>
- <p>In the longer term, even better solutions are likely:</p>
- <ol>
- <li>Several Boost members are working on expression template libraries.
- These will allow a more natural syntax for combining and adapting
- functions. As this is a new technology, it may be some time before it has
- matured and is widely supported by major compilers but shows great
- promise. In the meantime, the functional.hpp library fills the gap.</li>
- <li>The Standard Committee has recognised the problem of references to
- references occurring during template instantiation and has moved to fix
- the standard (see the <a href=
- "http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_active.html#106">C++
- standard core language active issues list</a>).</li>
- </ol>
- <h3>Author</h3>
- <p><a href="http://www.boost.org/people/mark_rodgers.htm">Mark Rodgers</a></p>
- <h3>Acknowledgements</h3>
- <p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.boost.org/people/john_maddock.htm">John Maddock</a> for
- suggesting the mechanism that allowed the function objects traits to work
- correctly. <a href="http://www.boost.org/people/jens_maurer.htm">Jens Maurer</a> provided
- invaluable feedback during the <a href=
- "http://www.boost.org/more/formal_review_process.htm">formal review process</a>.</p>
- <hr>
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- <p>Revised
- <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED" s-format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->02
- December, 2006<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="38510" --></p>
- <p><i>Copyright © 2000 Cadenza New Zealand Ltd.</i></p>
- <p><i>Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
- accompanying file <a href="../../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or
- copy at <a href=
- "http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)</i></p>
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