Boost C++ Libraries

Programmers should have enough knowledge to use this library after reading the Introduction, Getting Started, and Tutorial sections. The Reference section can be consulted at a later point for quick reference. All the other sections of this documentation can be considered optional.

Some footnotes are marked by the word "Rationale". They explain reasons behind decisions made during the design and implementation of this library.

In most of the examples presented in this documentation, the Boost.Detail/LightweightTest (boost/detail/lightweight_test.hpp) macro BOOST_TEST is used to check correctness conditions. The BOOST_TEST macro is conceptually similar to assert but a failure of the checked condition does not abort the program, instead it makes boost::report_errors return a non-zero program exit code. ^[2]

The authors originally developed and tested the library on GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) C++ 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.5.3 (with and without C++11 features -std=c++0x), Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) 8.0, and Intel 10.1 under Linux, Cygwin, and Windows 7. However, this library should be usable on any compiler that supports Boost.Typeof except:

See the library regression test results for detailed information on supported compilers and platforms. Check the library regression test Jamfile.v2 for any special configuration that might be required for a specific compiler.

This library is composed of header files only. Therefore there is no pre-compiled object file which needs to be installed. Programmers can simply instruct the compiler where to find the library header files (-I option on GCC, /I option on MSVC, etc) and compile code using the library.

The library implementation uses Boost.Typeof to automatically deduce the types of the Boost.ScopeExit captured variables (see the Tutorial section). In order to compile code in type-of emulation mode, all types should be properly registered using BOOST_TYPEOF_REGISTER_TYPE and BOOST_TYPEOF_REGISTER_TEMPLATE, or appropriate Boost.Typeof headers should be included (see the source code of most examples presented in this documentation).