Exceeding the C ++ standard library: boost library guidance: Preface

Preface

Dear reader,

Welcome to "go beyond the C ++ standard library: boost library Guide".

This book is for you if you are interested in generic programming, library design, and C ++ standard libraries. This book is intended for medium and high level C ++ programmers. Some basic concepts of C ++ are hardly involved in this book. As the title implies, this book focuses on the general usage, good habits, implementation technology, and design philosophy of the boost library.

I almost wanted to write this book from the day I found boost and the extraordinary libraries in it and those who knew it. It's amazing that a mature language like C ++ can still provide exploration space for high-level abstraction and technical details, without any language changes. Of course, this is exactly the difference between C ++ and many other programming languages: it is designed specifically for scalability, and the language itself provides exceptionally powerful support for common components. The boost Library and the boost community are doing exactly this kind of exploration. Boost aims to make C ++ programming more elegant, robust, and efficient ). The boost library has made many discoveries and formed many good habits. Now the C ++ community faces a major challenge: share this knowledge with everyone. In an isolated view, these major discoveries have limited value, but they are presented to more people, which will promote the development of the entire industry.

The boost library is very useful. This book shows how to use some libraries picked out from the boost library, teaches them some good usage, and even goes into the background to inquire about their working mechanism. Boost authorization allows you to copy, use, and modify the software for any purpose (both commercial and non-commercial). You need to access www.boost.org to download the latest version.

All fans of the C ++ standard library know that the standard library is undergoing a new round of revision. From the perspective of standardization, the C ++ standard library is most likely to be changed in the following three aspects:

• Fix problematic databases.
• Improve some of the missing functions (augmenting missing features to existing libraries) on the basis of existing libraries ).

• Add a new library to provide functions that are missing from the existing standard library.

The boost library covers the above three aspects in different ways. Six of the 12 databases covered in this book have been adopted into the technical report of the coming standard library, which means they are likely to become part of the next standard library. Therefore, learning these databases has great long-term value. I hope you will find this book a useful tool to help you better use, understand, and expand the boost library. With these advantages, you can try to integrate these libraries and their ideas into your own design and implementation. I think this is reuse ).

Thank you.

Björn Karlsson