由boost網絡庫說起...

文末這篇Email是2006-03-22的,而今天已經2006-8-5日了,我看到asio的soureforge的主頁上說.

20 June 2006 - asio version 0.3.7 (development) released.
This release includes major interface changes arising out of the Boost review of asio.
The asio library was accepted into Boost and will appear in a future Boost release.

不過Boost release到現在還是

boost 1.33.1 December 5, 2005.

asio不知道還要等到什么時候才在Boost release放出,真是望穿秋水啊.
C++0x標準也是這樣,等就一個字.
由此而觀,國外C++社區真是小心謹慎,穩定第一,在他們的理念中C++更類似于一件藝術品.反觀Java,.Net的日新月異,可以說是功能第一,方便第二,速度第三.商業與學院的區別真是不辨自明.

而在我的理念中,對于面向普通桌面用戶(不是專業/行業軟件)的由于功能的類似(即使你有一個很有創意的軟件,不出幾天就會有軟件的翻版),界面和速度可能就是生存的關鍵.對與C++的Gui這一塊,我感覺是極端不適應(也許是我水平太差),幸而firefox和Google的一些小程序提供有了一種新的界面思路:一個后臺服務+一個微型web服務器+網頁界面.利用Ajax技術可以寫出很好界面來(我寫了一個默寫單詞軟件網頁界面的試驗品,兼容firefox和IE6,下載地址:
http://groups.google.com/group/go2program/browse_thread/thread/5ee588253b70df77
中的附件 source.rar
)

所有在cpp@codingnow.com中高人的指點下我知道了asio.從而有了上面這些感慨.

下面是我翻譯的關于宣布asio成為boost一員的Email,這是我第一次逐字逐句的翻譯.水平有限(6級沒過),望多指教.

原文:Jeff Garland
翻譯:張沈鵬 http://blog.csdn.net/zuroc or http://www.shnenglu.com/zuroc

大家好-
我很高興的宣布asio(注:網絡庫)正式成為boost庫的一員.正如其他Boost庫的審查一樣,asio的審查產生了許多的討論,觀點和爭辯.評價歸結于贊美,包括在工程中成功運用的例子,嚴肅的(庫結構)設計方面的意見.公平的說,在我看來,asio是了一個通用,可靠的庫,已經可以被加入Boost庫--提供了開發者強烈要求的關鍵領域的應用.

當然,一如往常,asio還談不上完美--不少關鍵性的問題這次審評并沒有考慮.在此我僅列舉審評中許多的意見中的一部分:

- 修正動態內存分配的問題
- 更改接口以在運行時ipv4和ipv6的無縫切換
- 改進以適應強類型的socket接口(????什么意思,請高手指教)

Chris已經獲知了大量關于動態內存分的配解決方案,并且我會就接口和其他方面的問題在Boost的郵件列表上進行跟蹤討論以期能盡善盡美.

其他可以作為進一步增強重要的改進包括:

- 盡可能減少c風格的接口
- 和iostream進一步的整合
- 性能優化
- 改進文檔(不要成為Boost w/o this one //???怎么翻譯)

Chris has a much longer list of changes garnered from the review and is well on his way to addressing many of them.
Chris有著一個更長的針對審評意見的改進計劃表,同時他與建議者有著很好的連續.

注意,有幾個討論是關于性能的,這是asio所涉及領域的核心問題.其中一個就是上面提到的動態內存分配.一般而言,審評者對此的期望很高.然而,在審評討論之后,在我的印象中許多開發者發現asio只要改進內存分配,它的表現就已經足夠勝任重要的工程.(但)我希望Chris在開發asio余下的時間里,可以采納審評者的一些其他方面的性能意見.

再一次我為Boost社區延遲公布審評結果而抱歉.這次推遲完全是由于我的時間安排問題,與asio無關.再次感謝所有的審評者的貢獻,尤其向Chris為Boost添加asio而作出的巨大努力致敬.

原文:
From: Jeff Garland

All -

I'm pleased to announce that asio has been accepted into Boost. As usual with a Boost review, the asio review generated plenty of discussion, issues, and controversy. Comments ranged from high praise,including success stories of projects in production, to serious design concerns and issues. On balance, in my judgment, asio provides a generally solid library that is ready for inclusion into the Boost library -- providing key functionality in an area that developers have a strong need.

Of course, like anything else, asio is not perfect -- a number of key issues were uncovered during the review. In terms of required changes I'm only going to cite a few:

- Fixes to dynamic memory allocation issues
- Interface changes to support ipv4 and ipv6 seamlessly at runtime
- Improvements to support strongly typed socket interfaces

Chris has communicated a couple possible solutions to the memory allocation issue and I'll ask that the interface and other changes for this issue continue to be discussed on the Boost list so consensus can be achieved on the best resolution.

Other key improvements that should be explored as future enhancements include:

- Possible removal of some of the c-style interfaces
- Exploration of higher level iostream integrations
- Performance improvements
- Improved documentation (wouldn't be Boost w/o this one)

Note that there were several threads and discussions about performance,which is particularly critical for the domain covered by asio. One of the performance issues is the dynamic memory allocation issue cited above. In general, the reviewers have extremely high expectations here. However, after reviewing the discussion and library it's my belief that
many developers will find asio performance sufficient to build significant projects with only the memory allocation changes. I expect Chris will be able to address some of the other performance issues cited by reviewers in asio over time.

Once again I'll apologize to the Boost community for the delay in the review results. The delay was entirely due to my own personal scheduling issues and should not reflect on asio in any way. Thanks again to all the reviewers for their effort and especially to Chris for his tremendous effort in bringing asio to Boost!

Jeff