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Without this set of libraries I think people would have given up coding with c++ years ago. Simplfies everything from statecharts to pointer handling to graph t

Without this set of libraries I think people would have given up coding with c++ years ago. Simplfies everything from statecharts to pointer handling to graph traversal. Absolute must for any serious c++ coder.

uuilly 17y ago
Agree, I use boost::shared_ptr, boost::weak_ptr, boost::array and boost::bind the most. I found boost::function to be really good as long as it's not a high performance section of code - they are really slow. boost::lambda is too baroque for me though I tried. I also tried boost::multi-array and found it difficult. And I've been meaning to use boost::bimap but haven't gotten around to it. Biggest complaint is that the compiler errors honk. The main thing it's changed is I spend 10% of the time I used to thinking of memory management and I use the stl algorithms a lot more.
mahmud 17y ago
Yes, the libraries make the language tolerable but not unique. I jumped the C++ ship in 2001 to Lisp, while BOOST was still an infant, and from what it looks like, my hunch was right and I didn't miss anything. The following is a line-by-line comparison between most of the Boost libs and their corresponding Common Lisp functionality. CL has most of them builtin, wherever that makes sense, or as a defacto community-standard library. http://www.boost.org/doc/libs http://www.boost.org/doc/libs ---- Any (list-sets, keywords or all the unique objects using EQ/EQL) Array (Arrays) Assign (customizable assignment with SETF) Bitmap (bidirectional maps library for C++, use hash-tables) Bind (a crippled form of generic dispatch) Call Traits (a crippled form of generic dispatch) Conversion (automatic type promotion built into Lisp, there is also COERCE) Dynamic Bitset (bit-vectors) Enable If (#+ #- , etc. EVAL-WHEN) Exception (yeah, a crippled subset of the condition system) Filesystem (see pathnames) Foreach (a crippled form of LOOP) Format (a pale imitation of FORMAT) Function (lambda, generic function) Function Types (sigh) Functional (no comment) Functional/Hash (hash-tables with custom test function) Fusion (A pale immitation of CL sequences) Integer (CL has a numeric tower) Iostreams (CL streams, gray-streams, simple-streams) Iterators (Loop, Iterate) Lambda ( lambda :-) Math (most built into lisp, including complex numbers) Multi-Array (builtin) Numeric Conversion (builtin, again, see COERCE for the manual manipulation) Operators (all user-defined functions, macros and types are first class values in CL) Optional (multiple-values) Parameter (keywords arguments, &key, &rest, &optional) Proto (the whole of CL is a toolkit for creating DLS, specially the macro system) Python (CMUCL/SBCL ;-) Random (random, random-state, builtin) Rational (rationals are builtin and are integrated into the numeric tower) Ref (fixes a C++ limitation, unneeded) Regex (cl-ppcre) Scop Exit (unwind-protect) Serialization (cl-serialize) Signals (condition system; make your own custom "signals", or use iolib for unix signals) Smart Ptr (fixes a C++ limitation, unneeded) Static Assert (eval-when + check-type or assert) String Algo (builtin, split-sequence from cliki) System (builtin, implementation specific or use protable libs in cliki, also see CFFI) Test (FiveAM) Thread (bordeaux-threads) Timer (sb-timer, trivial-timeout) Tokenizer (split-sequence) Tuple (multiple-values, unneeded, fixes a C++ limitation) Type Traits (unneeded by a reflective language like Lisp) Value Initializes (Lisp has bindings) Xpressive (yeah, cl-ppcre regexes can be written as strings or as lisp s-exp)
- keeptrying 17y ago
  True but how many companies use lisp for anything major? If you work on wall street like I do, and u don't want to do java then boost becomes absolutely necessary. I hated c++ before I found boost.
- wglb 17y ago
  keeptrying: ITA uses it significantly; my startup uses it 100% save for a few shell scripts. Check out the success stories on the Franz Lisp home page.
- uuilly 17y ago
  An impressive list and all true if you don't care about speed. I've built three rendering engines w/ C++ / boost. Could not have made them fast in lisp.

uuilly 17y ago

Agree, I use boost::shared_ptr, boost::weak_ptr, boost::array and boost::bind the most. I found boost::function to be really good as long as it's not a high performance section of code - they are really slow. boost::lambda is too baroque for me though I tried. I also tried boost::multi-array and found it difficult. And I've been meaning to use boost::bimap but haven't gotten around to it. Biggest complaint is that the compiler errors honk. The main thing it's changed is I spend 10% of the time I used to thinking of memory management and I use the stl algorithms a lot more.

mahmud 17y ago

Yes, the libraries make the language tolerable but not unique. I jumped the C++ ship in 2001 to Lisp, while BOOST was still an infant, and from what it looks like, my hunch was right and I didn't miss anything. The following is a line-by-line comparison between most of the Boost libs and their corresponding Common Lisp functionality. CL has most of them builtin, wherever that makes sense, or as a defacto community-standard library. http://www.boost.org/doc/libs http://www.boost.org/doc/libs ---- Any (list-sets, keywords or all the unique objects using EQ/EQL) Array (Arrays) Assign (customizable assignment with SETF) Bitmap (bidirectional maps library for C++, use hash-tables) Bind (a crippled form of generic dispatch) Call Traits (a crippled form of generic dispatch) Conversion (automatic type promotion built into Lisp, there is also COERCE) Dynamic Bitset (bit-vectors) Enable If (#+ #- , etc. EVAL-WHEN) Exception (yeah, a crippled subset of the condition system) Filesystem (see pathnames) Foreach (a crippled form of LOOP) Format (a pale imitation of FORMAT) Function (lambda, generic function) Function Types (sigh) Functional (no comment) Functional/Hash (hash-tables with custom test function) Fusion (A pale immitation of CL sequences) Integer (CL has a numeric tower) Iostreams (CL streams, gray-streams, simple-streams) Iterators (Loop, Iterate) Lambda ( lambda :-) Math (most built into lisp, including complex numbers) Multi-Array (builtin) Numeric Conversion (builtin, again, see COERCE for the manual manipulation) Operators (all user-defined functions, macros and types are first class values in CL) Optional (multiple-values) Parameter (keywords arguments, &key, &rest, &optional) Proto (the whole of CL is a toolkit for creating DLS, specially the macro system) Python (CMUCL/SBCL ;-) Random (random, random-state, builtin) Rational (rationals are builtin and are integrated into the numeric tower) Ref (fixes a C++ limitation, unneeded) Regex (cl-ppcre) Scop Exit (unwind-protect) Serialization (cl-serialize) Signals (condition system; make your own custom "signals", or use iolib for unix signals) Smart Ptr (fixes a C++ limitation, unneeded) Static Assert (eval-when + check-type or assert) String Algo (builtin, split-sequence from cliki) System (builtin, implementation specific or use protable libs in cliki, also see CFFI) Test (FiveAM) Thread (bordeaux-threads) Timer (sb-timer, trivial-timeout) Tokenizer (split-sequence) Tuple (multiple-values, unneeded, fixes a C++ limitation) Type Traits (unneeded by a reflective language like Lisp) Value Initializes (Lisp has bindings) Xpressive (yeah, cl-ppcre regexes can be written as strings or as lisp s-exp)

keeptrying 17y ago
True but how many companies use lisp for anything major? If you work on wall street like I do, and u don't want to do java then boost becomes absolutely necessary. I hated c++ before I found boost.
wglb 17y ago
keeptrying: ITA uses it significantly; my startup uses it 100% save for a few shell scripts. Check out the success stories on the Franz Lisp home page.
uuilly 17y ago
An impressive list and all true if you don't care about speed. I've built three rendering engines w/ C++ / boost. Could not have made them fast in lisp.