Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost [Paperback]

Björn Karlsson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0321133544 | ISBN-13: 978-0321133540 | Edition: 1

Introducing the Boost libraries: the next breakthrough in C++ programming

Boost takes you far beyond the C++ Standard Library, making C++ programming more elegant, robust, and productive. Now, for the first time, a leading Boost expert systematically introduces the broad set of Boost libraries and teaches best practices for their use.

Writing for intermediate-to-advanced C++ developers, Björn Karlsson briefly outlines all 58 Boost libraries, and then presents comprehensive coverage of 12 libraries you're likely to find especially useful. Karlsson's topics range from smart pointers and conversions to containers and data structures, explaining exactly how using each library can improve your code. He offers detailed coverage of higher-order function objects that enable you to write code that is more concise, expressive, and readable. He even takes you "behind the scenes" with Boost, revealing tools and techniques for creating your own generic libraries.

Coverage includes

• Smart pointers that provide automatic lifetime management of objects and simplify resource sharing
• Consistent, best-practice solutions for performing type conversions and lexical conversions
• Utility classes that make programming simpler and clearer
• Flexible container libraries that solve common problems not covered by the C++ Standard Library
• Powerful support for regular expressions with Boost.Regex
• Function objects defined at the call site with Boost.Bind and Boost.Lambda
• More flexible callbacks with Boost.Function
• Managed signals and slots (a.k.a. the Observer pattern) with Boost.Signals

The Boost libraries are proving so useful that many of them are planned for inclusion in the next version of the C++ Standard Library. Get your head start now, with Beyond the C++ Standard Library.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Björn Karlsson works as a Senior Software Engineer at ReadSoft, where he spends most of his time designing and programming in C++. He has written a number of articles about C++ and the Boost libraries for publications such as C/C++ Users Journal, Overload, and the online journal The C++ Source.

Karlsson is a member of the advisory board for The C++ Source and has been a member of the editorial board of C/C++ Users Journal, where he is also one of the columnists in the Experts Forum. He participates in the Boost newsgroups and is one of the Boost-Users moderators.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost.

If you are interested in generic programming, library design, and the C++ Standard Library, this book is for you. Because the intended audience for the book is intermediate to advanced C++ programmers, there is little coverage of basic C++ concepts. As the title suggests, the focus of this book is on the Boost libraries—general usage, best practices, implementation techniques, and design rationale.

Almost from the day I discovered Boost, the people behind it, and the extraordinary libraries in it, I've wanted to write this book. It is amazing that a language as mature as C++ still offers room for exploration into higher-level abstractions as well as technical detail, all without requiring changes to the language. Of course, this is what sets C++ apart from many other programming languages: It is specifically and intentionally designed for extension, and the language's facilities for generic constructs are extremely powerful. This exploration is at the core of the Boost libraries and the Boost community itself. Boost is about making programming in C++ more elegant, more robust, and more productive. As discoveries are made and best practices are shaped, a great challenge faces the C++ community; to share this knowledge with others. In isolation, there is limited value to these remarkable findings, but when exposed to a larger audience, a whole industry will evolve.

This book shows how to use a selection of the wonderfully useful Boost libraries, teaches best practices for their use, and even goes behind the scenes to see how they actually work. The Boost libraries' license grants permission to copy, use, and modify the software for any use (commercial and non-commercial), so all you need to do is visit www.boost.org and download the latest version.

For all the C++ Standard Library aficionados out there, it is well known that a new revision of the Standard Library is in progress. From a standardization point of view, there are three primary areas where the C++ Standard Library is likely to change:

• Fixing broken libraries

• Augmenting missing features to existing libraries

• Adding libraries that provide functionality that is missing in the Standard Library

The Boost libraries address all of these areas in one way or another. Of the 12 libraries covered in this book, six have already been accepted for inclusion in the upcoming Library Technical Report, which means that they will most likely be part of the next version of the Standard Library. Thus, learning about these libraries has excellent long-term value. I hope that you will find this book to be a valuable tool for using, understanding, and extending the Boost libraries. From that vantage, you'll want to incorporate those libraries and the knowledge enshrined within them into your own designs and implementations. That's what I call reuse.

Thank you for reading.

Björn Karlsson

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (September 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321133544
• ISBN-13: 978-0321133540
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > C > Language
  • #37 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > C > Tutorials

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for intermediate programmers using Boost, September 14, 2005

By 

G. Powell (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost (Paperback)

This book is not just a rehash of the online documentation of the boost library. This book is way more than that, it's a why you should use these libraries and how to book. Not a how to write the libraries, or program in C++. As such this book is geared toward the intermediate to advanced C++ programmer who has heard about www.boost.org but isn't using all of the libraries yet.

This is not an unbiased review, as I reviewed the chapter on Lambda as I'm one of the original authors of the library. However I'm not on the payroll so you can trust me when I say, buy the book, you'll be glad you did.

Why should you care? Well boost is a proving ground for many of the upcoming C++ 0X standard libaries. Before the libraries get accepted by the standards committee, often there is reference implementation done for boost. And those that don't make the standard cut, well, often its not poor quality code, but rather a narrow focus library. Boost may have just the thing you need, so check it out.

And as every good programmer knows, the fastest way to use new code is to get stuff that has documentation (this book) that is tested, and is free. (sorry the book isn't free, but the code is!)

So save yourself several days of head scratching and buy the book.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you're not using Boost, you're not getting the most out of C++., October 14, 2005

By 

Paul M. Dubuc (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost (Paperback)

All professional C++ programmers should become familiar with this freely available source of high quality, peer reviewed C++ code. Boost is a collection of libraries that are designed to complement the C++ Standard Library and provide very useful solutions to difficult program design tasks. This book is a very good introduction to Boost. There is an introductory chapter that gives a brief description of each Boost library (almost 60 of them as of version 1.32). Seven of these libraries have been accepted for the upcoming C++ Standard Library Technical Report which means that they will probably become part of the next version of the C++ standard. The remainder of the book gives a more in-depth tutorial introduction of a good sampling of 12 Boost libraries. This material complements the documentation on the Boost.org web site. It provides clear examples that illustrate the use and usefulness of each library.

My only complaint is that they didn't make the book longer and include more libraries in this detailed treatment. Some of the libraries are very extensive and have other books devoted specifically to them. (See The Boost Graph Library, by Siek, Lee and Sumsdaine; and C++ Template Metaprogramming, by Abrahams and Gurtovoy which covers Boost MPL.) But I think the book would be more valuable if some of the other libraries like Multi-index, Format and Serialization had been explained in more detail. Articles on these have appeared in recent issues of the C/C++ User's Journal. Still, this is a great book to have. I highly recommend it and expect that expanded editions will come out in the future. Already Boost 1.33 has been released with with 5 new libraries and significant updates to existing libraries. C++ programming has never been better.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly the book I needed... and Boost too!, October 10, 2005

By 

H. Wiman "H. Wiman, PhD" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost (Paperback)

This is really what the Boost community (www.boost.org) needs to increase the awareness of its excellent libraries! Not to mention how much I needed it to improve my programming!

As a programmer, you have so many task specific features to implement, that you really don't have the time (or even interest) to implement the fundamentals. Yes, you have the C++ standard library to assist you, but the Boost libraries take you to an entirely new level. And the Boost libraries have the absolute top quality, which most of us just can not achieve even if we had all the time in the world. Yet, the libraries *are* fundamental in the sense that they solve common programming issues (and also in many cases show the path to upcoming C++ standards). It is hard to imagine an application making use of *all* the Boost libraries, but I'd say that it is equally hard to imagine one which would not benefit from any Boost library.

[Did you get this far without ever having visited http://www.boost.org? Then now is the time to do that...

Done? Ok, let's continue with the book.]

Without any statistics to support me, I am pretty convinced that the average Boost user is far more experienced in C++ than most of us who make a living out of C++ programming (let alone those who don't). This book will help to flatten out this bias, by making Boost easy to understand and immediately useful for those who read it. It is clearly written - technically correct while never being boring, even if you read from first to last page. It includes many code examples, which repeatedly made me associate to uses in my programming. I would have liked the examples and the Boost libraries on an accompanying CD, but this is no major concern - it's better to get the freshest release from boost.org anyway. I read the book basically from start to end, skimming a couple of libraries that I found no immediate use for. The book covers 12 libraries out of 58 which makes me looking forward to a follow-up book covering yet another 12 or so libraries.