Subject: Re: [boost] [math][distributions] superfluous checking ofparameters?
From: John Maddock (boost.regex_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-10-29 12:46:00
>> Why is that? It's done in a consistent way across all distributions. Can
>> we remove the check
> inside the non
>> member functions that are already checked in the constructor?
>
> As I recollect, I think we thought there were circumstances when this
> check wasn't redundant (but I
> can't remember the exact case. Users changes the distribution
> parameters?).
>
> And because it was believed better to be safe than sorry, and the check
> was very cheap (at runtime),
> we kept it that way.
The issue is like this:
* If the current policy (a template param) is to throw on domain errors (the
default), then the second check in the non-member functions is redundant as
any errors will have triggered an exception in the distribution constructor.
On the other hand:
* If the current policy is to not throw (return NaN on domain errors), then
the constructor checks are redundant and the non-member function checks are
the required ones.
If it really is a performance bottleneck, then we could add a check on the
current exception policy so that those two mutually exclusive options get
optimized at compile time.
HTH, John.