83 lines
3.2 KiB
XML
83 lines
3.2 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE section PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
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<section id="safe_numerics.notes">
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<title>Background</title>
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<para>This library started out as a re-implementation of the facilities
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provided by <ulink url="http://safeint.codeplex.com">David LeBlanc's SafeInt
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Library</ulink>. I found this library to be well done in every way. My main
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usage was to run unit tests for my embedded systems projects on my PC.
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Still, from my perspective it had a few issues.</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>It was a lot of code in one header - 6400 lines. Very unwieldy to
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understand, modify and maintain.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>I couldn't find separate documentation other than that in the
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header file.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>It didn't use <ulink url="http://www.boost.org">Boost</ulink>
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conventions for naming.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>It required porting to different compilers.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>It had a very long license associated with it.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>I could find no test suite for the library.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>Using later versions of C++ and the its standard library, template
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metaprogramming and <ulink url="http://www.boost.org">Boost
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libraries</ulink> I managed to (re)implement similar functionality in under
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2000 ? lines of code. I promoted this version as a possible submission to
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the Boost. The feedback I received convinced me that no such library would
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be considered acceptable to the large majority of C++ programmers. It seems
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that the desire for maximum performance overrides any requirement that a
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program be known to be free of bugs. By this time I had a better idea of the
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opportunities available with the latest version of C++ (C++14) and resolved
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to address this issue by creating a library which would provide all the
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facilities of safe numerics at minimal runtime cost. The result is what you
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see here. The library now consists of 7000 lines of code, approximately 50
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separate tests and more than 60 pages of documentation and examples.</para>
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<para>Since I wrote the above, I've been contacted by David LeBlanc. He's
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been updating his package and informs me that the latest
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version:<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>SafeInt does not require porting for different compilers, is
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fully supported on gcc, clang, and Visual Studio.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The license has been changed from MS-PL to MIT license.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The library has had a test suite since before it was public, and
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is now located here:</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>SafeInt also has no external dependencies other than standard
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library files, and doesn't need anything else installed to
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work.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist></para>
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<para>His current package can now be found at in <ulink
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url="https://github.com/dcleblanc/SafeInt">github</ulink>.</para>
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</section>
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