Learning Boost C++ Libraries

558 Pages·2015·2.899 MB·English

by  Arindam Mukherjee

Learning Boost C++ Libraries
Solve practical programming problems using powerful,
portable, and expressive libraries from Boost
Arindam Mukherjee
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Learning Boost C++ Libraries
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First published: July 2015
Production reference: 1280715
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Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Arindam Mukherjee Vijay Kushlani
Reviewers Proofreaders
Michael Medin Stephen Copestake
Anthony Shoumikhin Safis Editing
Drew Tennenbaum
Indexer
Sergey Zubkov
Hemangini Bari
Commissioning Editor
Graphics
Usha Iyer
Sheetal Aute
Acquisition Editor
Production Coordinator
Nikhil Karkal
Komal Ramchandani
Content Development Editors
Cover Work
Natasha DSouza
Komal Ramchandani
Sweny Sukumaran
Technical Editors
Pramod Kumavat
Saurabh Malhotra
Mitali Somaiya
Copy Editor
Rashmi Sawant
About the Author
Arindam Mukherjee is a senior principal software engineer at Symantec,
Pune, India, where he is involved in the research and development of business
continuity solutions for enterprises. He has used C++ extensively for developing
large-scale distributed systems. He was a speaker at Dr. Dobb's Journal India
Conference 2014 and is the organizer of regular meets for the Pune C++ and Boost
Meetup. He believes that writing books and articles, speaking for interest groups,
and engaging with the programming community are the best ways to develop a
critical understanding of technology. He is also an amateur musician, dabbles in
food photography, and loves profound discussions with his 4-year-old daughter,
especially about dinosaurs and their diets.
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Sergey Zubkov
for helping me refine the content of this book with his critical
reviews and observations. Special thanks to Anthony Shoumikhin,
Drew Tennenbaum, and Michael Medin for their thoughtful
reviews and feedback. A special word of thanks to Nikhil Karkal,
Natasha DSouza, Pramod Kumavat, and Sweny Sukumaran at
Packt Publishing for their tremendous support and helping me
manage all the missed deadlines. Last but not least, I thank my
father for making me believe as a child that writing books could
be fun, my mother for far more than words can ever express, my
wife for believing in my dream, and my daughter for making it all
worthwhile.
About the Reviewers
Michael Medin is a senior developer and lead architect of the NSClient++ project.
He is an avid C++ developer and has been developing open source software using
C++ and the Boost library for longer than he cares to remember.
As always, I would like to thank my beloved, Xiqun, for putting up
with me when I spend countless hours working on NSClient++ and
my two daughters for always bringing a smile to my face.
Anthony Shoumikhin is yet another geek who loves hacking, cycling,
swimming, and occasional work at Microsoft.
He grew up in Ukraine and spent his early years in a city of rocket science and
secret technologies—Dnipropetrovsk. These days, he works in Redmond, WA,
on an upcoming release of Microsoft Office for Mac and iOS.
In his spare time, he creates full-stack mobile apps and funny low-level system
hacks on Mac OS X and Linux (mostly in his beloved C++ empowered with Boost).
Drew Tennenbaum was introduced to programming at the age of 12. As a present,
his parents gave him his first computer, a Commodore 64. A family friend purchased
a book titled, Assembly Language for Kids: Commodore 64. Bored one night, he began
reading the book and instantly found attraction in learning how to make a machine
perform specific tasks. He quickly took to assembly language, which is now the
foundation for much of what he works on today.
He attended the University of Arizona, where he received a BS degree in Computer
Science and Math.
Since graduating from university in 1997, he has worked on a vast array of
technologies, ranging from video games to embedded devices. He spent many years
working on massively multiplayer online video games. In 2011, he was a Technical
Director at BioWare, helping launch Star Wars: The Old Republic. More recently, he
managed the development of the Appstore for Amazon's line of hardware devices,
including the Kindle and Fire TV. In early 2015, he founded Titan Labs. Titan Labs is
a small boutique consulting firm based in sunny Southern California.
In his spare time, he enjoys riding one of his many motorcycles and also holds
an amateur motorcycle racing license.
I want to thank my parents for giving me the room to explore my
passions in life. Without their patience, I would not have been where
I am today, and more importantly, I would not have been the person
I've become. I would also like to thank Dawn, my partner in life
who supports me in anything I do and puts up with those late night
programming sessions. Finally, I would like to thank all of my family
members, including my grandmother, brother, and sister.
Sergey Zubkov is a former biochemistry researcher who became a C++
programmer. He is currently working at Morgan Stanley and spends his free
time updating http://cppreference.com.
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Table of Contents
Preface ix
Chapter 1: Introducing Boost 1
How it all started 1
What is Boost? 2
Getting started with Boost libraries 3
Necessary software 3
Linux toolchain 4
Windows toolchain 4
Obtaining and building Boost libraries 5
Planning your Boost sandbox 5
Library naming conventions 5
Library name components 5
Library name layouts 6
Installing a Boost binary distribution 8
Building and installing the Boost libraries from source 10
Using Boost libraries in your projects 15
Linking against Boost libraries on Linux 16
Linking against Boost libraries on Windows 17
Building the code listings in this book 20
CMake 20
Code examples 20
Self-test questions 23
Summary 23
Chapter 2: The First Brush with Boost's Utilities 25
Simple data structures 25
Boost.Optional 26
Accessing values stored in boost::optional 28
get_value_or 29
Boost.Optional versus pointers 30
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