Foreword


Good things are happening in the C++ community. Although C++ remains the most widely used programming language in the world, it is becoming even more powerful and yet easier to use. Skeptical? Bear with me.

The current version of standard C++, which was finalized in 1998, offers robust support for traditional procedural programming as well as object-oriented and generic programming. Just as old (pre-1998) C++ was single-handedly responsible for putting object-oriented within the reach of the workaday software developer, C++98 has done the same for generic programming. The integration of the Standard Template Library (STL) into standard C++ in the mid-1990s represented as much a paradigm shift as did Bjarne Stroustrup's adding classes to C in the early 1980s. Now that the majority of C++ practitioners are proficient with concepts of STL, it's once again time to raise the bar.

Applications of the power of C++ are still being discovered. Many of today's C++ libraries, and mathematical libraries in particular, take routine advantage of template metaprogramming, a fortuitous but unforeseen result of the brilliant design of C++ templates. As higher-level tools and techniques come to light in the C++ community, developing increasingly complex applications is becoming more straightforward and enjoyable.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Boost to the world of C++. Since the ratification of C++98, no entity outside of the ISO Committee for Standard C++ (called WG21) has done more to influence the direction of C++ than has Boost (and many Boost subscribers are prominent members of WG21, including its founder, my friend Beman Dawes). The thousands of experienced Boost volunteers have, in unselfish, peer-reviewed fashion, developed many useful library solutions not provided by C++98. Ten of its offerings have already been accepted to be integrated into the upcoming C++0x library, and more are under consideration. Where a library approach has been shown to be wanting, the wisdom gained from the cross-pollination of Boost and WG21 has suggested a few modest language enhancements, which are now being entertained.

In the rare case that you haven't heard of Boost, let me ask…do you need to convert between text and numbers or (better yet) between any streamable types? No problemuse Boost.lexical_cast. Oh, you have more sophisticated text processing requirements? Then Boost.Tokenizer or Boost.Regex might be for you, or Boost.Spirit, if you need full-blown parsing. Boost.Bind will amaze you with its function projection and composition capabilities. For functional programming there is Boost.Lambda. Static assertions? Got 'em. If you're mathematically inclined, get your pencil out: You have Boost.Math, Graph, Quaternion, Octonion, MultiArray, Random, and Rational. If you are fortunate enough to have discovered the joy of Python, you can use it and C++ together with the help of Boost.Python. And you can practically pick your platform for all of the above.

Björn Karlsson is a Boost enthusiast and a heartfelt supporter of the C++ community. He has published useful and well-written articles in the C/C++ Users Journal and, more recently, for The C++ Source, a new online voice for the C++ community (see www.artima.com/cppsource). In this volume, he motivates and illustrates key Boost components, and shows how they work with and extend the C++ Standard Library. Consider this not only an in-depth tutorial on Boost, but also a foretaste of the future version of Standard C++. Enjoy!


Chuck Allison, Editor, The C++ Source



    Beyond the C++ Standard Library(c) An Introduction to Boost
    Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost
    ISBN: 0321133544
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 125

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