[Xorp-hackers] FYI: C++0x language standard is now ratified

[Bruce M Simpson]

Hi,

This is just to propagate the announcement that the next version of the 
C++ language standard, C++0x, has now been ratified.

Links:

 General announcements:
   
http://herbsutter.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/september-2008-iso-c-standards-meeting-the-draft-has-landed-and-a-new-convener/
  http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2008/n2784.html

 The working draft itself:
   http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2008/n2798.pdf

 GNU C++0x status here:
   http://gcc.gnu.org/projects/cxx0x.html

 The Wikipedia article is a useful summary which fluctuates:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B0x

What this means for XORP:

 There are a number of places in the XORP code base which could benefit 
from using some of the idioms introduced within the new C++0x 
specification. Some of these are derived from the Boost++ project.

 * std::shared_ptr is a possible fit for the OLSR and OSPF message 
handling code.
   Note that it's really easy to introduce memory leaks using ref_ptr; 
every time one is passed to a new scope, the refcount is bumped, even if 
it's "Just passing through".
   Boost++'s weak_ptr exists to allow refcounted pointers to be passed 
between subsystems WITHOUT losing their refcounted nature, and WITHOUT 
bumping the refcount until the ref is actually ACQUIRED.

 * Concept checks are being formalized as part of the language, these 
are very useful for metaprogramming, i.e. building your own extensions 
to the STL containers.

 * Variadic macros are now part of the standard. XORP uses these in a 
number of places.
Microsoft's native toolchains for example, did not support them until 
Visual Studio 2005 was released, and even then as a non-standard 
extension to the C99 preprocessor.

 * Tuple is syntactic sugar, but welcome nonetheless, we use struct 
types in a number of places and tuples would no doubt make things more 
readable.

thanks
BMS