Version 1.32.0

November 19th, 2004 12:00 GMT

Documentation

Important - New Toolset Names

The names of some the Boost.Build toolsets have been changed to remove the "." (dot) character and to fix some other naming inconsistencies. For example, vc7.1 toolset was renamed to become vc-7_1. Please refer to the Supported Toolsets section of the installation guide for the complete list of the current toolset names. This change was made as a part of the effort to make the Boost distribution compatible with ISO 9660 level 2 requirements.

New Libraries

• Assignment Library:
  • Filling containers with constant or generated data has never been easier, from Thorsten Ottosen.
• Minmax Library:
  • Standard library extensions for simultaneous min/max and min/max element computations, from Herve Bronnimann.
• Multi-index Containers Library:
  • Containers with multiple STL-compatible access interfaces, from Joaquin M Lopez Munoz.
• Numeric Conversion Library:
  • Optimized policy-based numeric conversions, from Fernando Cacciola.
• Program Options Library:
  • Access to configuration data given on command line, in config files and other sources, from Vladimir Prus.
• Range Library:
  • a new infrastructure for generic algorithms that builds on top of the new iterator concepts, from Thorsten Ottosen.
• Serialization Library:
  • Serialization/de-serialization of arbitrary C++ data structures to various formats including text, binary, and xml, from Robert Ramey.
• String Algorithms Library:
  • Collection of string related algorithms for case conversion, trimming, find/replace operations and more, from Pavol Droba.
• Tribool:
  • 3-state boolean type library, from Doug Gregor.

Updated Libraries

• Compose: This deprecated library has been removed.
• Graph:
  • Added bundled properties to the adjacency_list and adjacency_matrix class templates, greatly simplifying the introduction of internal vertex and edge properties.
  • The LEDA graph adaptors have been ported to LEDA 4.5.
  • Added algorithms for betweenness centrality and betweenness centrality clustering.
  • Added circle layout and undirected spring layout algorithms.
• MPL Library:
  • Updated to use the Boost Software License.
  • New documentation, including a complete reference manual.
  • Major interface changes and improvements, many of which are not backward compatible. Please refer to the 1.32 changelog for the detailed information about upgrading to the new version.
• Python Library:
  • Updated to use the Boost Software License.
  • a new, better method of wrapping classes with virtual functions has been implemented.
  • Support for the new Python Bool type, thanks to Daniel Holth.
  • Support for upcoming GCC symbol export control features have been folded in, thanks to Niall Douglas.
  • Improved support for std::auto_ptr-like types.
  • Components used by other libraries have been moved out of python/detail and into boost/detail to improve dependency relationships.
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and compiler workarounds.
• Signals Library: Introduced deterministic slot ordering, permitting slots to be connected at the beginning or end of slot groups or the slot list itself. Combiners may safely have state and are accessible from the signal.
• Utility: class template result_of added.
• Test Library:
  • namespace names gets shorten; old one still supported till next release
  • added proper encoding of XML PCDATA
  • support for wide string comparison implemented

  For complete list of changes see Test Library release notes.

Regression tests

This release has been extensively tested on a variety of different compilers and platforms. It is known to contain no regressions against the previous reference release on the compilers and configurations tested. Please refer to the corresponding regression reports to see how well your compiler performs on the new Boost codebase.

Acknowledgements

Aleksey Gurtovoy managed this release. Managing a release at all is an enormous job, and Aleksey always goes beyond merely meeting requirements by insisting on the highest possible quality. The Boost membership owes him a debt of gratitude.

This release wouldn't have been possible without the dedicated effort of many, many members of the Boost community who generously contributed their outstanding expertise, time and energy to making it happen. For patches, bug fixes, troubleshooting, expert advice, and prompt responses to the release manager's requests we thank:

David Abrahams, Misha Bergal, Jonathan Brandmeyer, Fernando Cacciola, Marshall Clow, Christopher Currie, Pavol Droba, Caleb Epstein, Eric Friedman, Jeff Garland, Michael Glassford, Doug Gregor, Joel de Guzman, Hubert Holin, Jaakko Jarvi, Hartmut Kaiser, Bronek Kozicki, Tarjei Knapstad, Toon Knapen, Aaron W. LaFramboise, Joaquin M Lopez Munoz, Christoph Ludwig, John Maddock, Paul Mensonides, Guillaume Melquiond, Thorsten Ottosen, Vladimir Prus, Robert Ramey, Rene Rivera, Gennadiy Rozental, Stefan Slapeta, Jonathan Turkanis, Pavel Vozenilek, Jonathan Wakely, Daryle Walker, Victor A. Wagner Jr. and Martin Wille.

Also, our special thanks go to: John Maddock for the managing the effort of converting the majority of the Boost libraries to the Boost Software License, Eric Niebler and Joel de Guzman for taking on the important job of improving the Boost documentation's look and feel, and last, but not least, to our regression test runners, without whom we simply would never have released: Toon Knapen, Bronek Kozicki, Rene Rivera, Markus Schopflin, Stefan Slapeta, Victor A. Wagner Jr. and Martin Wille.

Thank you everybody!