Subject: Re: [boost] [safe_numerics] Last three days
From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-03-10 18:56:07
On 3/10/17 9:22 AM, John Maddock via Boost wrote:
>
>> I'm very, very concerned that there are only a very few reviews
>> (actually really just one !!!). In the past I've railed against the
>> acceptance of libraries with only two reviews !!! I don't really know
>> what else to say about this. I'll just punt to the review manager.
>>
>
> I think the problem is this: normally we review largely based on
> interface and the design - get the design right and the internals
> usually take care of themselves. However, in this case the design is
> (hopefully) exceptionally uncontroversial - it looks like an int, smalls
> like an int, and behaves like an int. There really isn't much to get
> your teeth into there. What really matters is that:
>
> * It's functionally correct.
> * It truly is a drop in replacement for type int, with no nasty surprises.
> * It's performance compared to int isn't so dreadful that no one uses it.
>
> Unfortunately reviewing these points requires some exceptionally
> detailed work: the internals of the library are sufficiently complex,
> and use enough unfamiliar (to me at least) C++14 features, that this is
> not an easy task.
This is a very believable explanation.
> I confess at present to be deeply surprised at how
> complex the internals are...
If it makes any difference - it started out a lot simpler. Then it
became apparent that the issue of performance could not be ignored in
the real world. This meant detecting and filtering out redundant
checking. On which I was stuck - until C++14 generalized constexpr which
permitted implementation of compile time integer arithmetic. (which
actually could/should be a separate library. This in turned motivated
the checked integer routines to be constexpr. My interest and concerns
for embedded systems and compile time usage of checked integer
operations introduced constexpr check_result - basically a kind of monad
one can use a compile time. All in all it's the composition of several
libraries each of which could/should be a separate boost library.
check_result, checked integer arithmetic, integer interval arithmetic.
At the top is a layer which defines a safe_integer type and uses
enable_if to overload all the binary and unary operations involving safe
integers. The implementation of this last would be more concise using
concepts-lite in C++20 or Paul Fultz's tick library. But neither of
these are in boost or yet in the standard. All of the above is
implemented via constexpr where possible.
So as one can see it's actually pretty simple.
It's only now that I've "finished" it, that I see how simple it is.
Steven's exhaustive line by line review of the code is going to be a
very tough act follow. This appeared the second day of the review.
Maybe that intimated people - it would me. He's pointed out errors
which I've agreed to fix. so it's not clear that repeating this process,
though it woudn't hurt, might be somewhat redundant.
Perhaps you might take a different tack. I've spent a little time
looking at the boost multi-precision library with the eye of
incorporating it into the safe numerics testing. In the course of doing
this a couple of interesting things occurred to me.
a) would safe numeric types inter-operate with safe numerics types? They
should - but I haven't actually tested this. Whenever I fail to test
something - there's almost always a bug in it.
b) would safe<T> work if T is one of the types defined by boost
multi-precision? This is unclear to me. safe numerics presumes that
the largest types available are std::uintmax_t and std::intmax_t . It's
easy to imagine altering this presumption to use types defined by the
user to be types like boost::uint512_t or... . I think this would work
with minor changes - such a combination would open up whole new territory.
Maybe if you confined the scope of your review to issues such as the
above you could save a lot of time and bring up issues that others are
not in a position to do.
Finally, my biggest disappointment in all this has been my inability to
get people to take this whole effort seriously. That is, to even admit
that there is even a problem. It's inexplicable and disheartening to me
that one can write something like x + y and not be confident that the
result actually equals x + y. Especially in light of the fact that we're
using C++ to make flying cars - not just websites. I feel that for the
first time in 60 years we're in the position of making demonstrably
correct software - and no one cares. It's very frustrating.
I so much appreciate the interaction I have with my Boost soulmates. I'm
not sure what I would do with this.
Robert Ramey
>
> Best, John.
>
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