Re: [Quantlib-dev] Removing Boost dependency from QuantLib

[Klaus S. <kl...@sp...>]

Hi,

Awesome work. The major achievement for me is the lift to C++17 - even subtle 
details like the thread-safe observer pattern have been ported !  I wouldn't 
mind if boost is stilled present for some minor use cases. It will be difficult 
to replace all of it on all supported platforms.

I would also appreciate if we move completely to a modern C++ version after 
10++ years of C++03.

best regards
Klaus

On Mittwoch, 5. Juli 2017 12:02:20 CEST Johannes Göttker-Schnetmann wrote:
> Hi Hao, Peter,
> 
> I also find this very interesting. Since C++ is moving at a better pace for
> some time we need at some point decide how QuantLib reacts to this.
> Personally I am using modern compilers and like the features modern C++
> provides. Therefore I would appreciate if QuantLib decides to fork or move
> completely to a modern C++ version.
> 
> Boost is in part an incubator of ideas, which at some point might make it
> into the C++ standard. For QuantLib the most prominent instances are
> boost::shared_pointer and boost:unique_pointer which are both in the
> standard for quite some time now. I would prefer to use the standard
> libraries instead of boost in those cases.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Johannes
> 
> On 4. Jul 2017, at 17:38, Peter Caspers <pca...@gm...> wrote:
> 
> Hi Hao, that’s very interesting. Do you know where the performance gain is
> coming from, is it mostly MKL vs. UBLAS? Or are there other drivers as
> well?
> I’d also be interested in the motivation to do this in the first place, I
> never thought boost as such was a bad thing?
> The upgrade to C++17 is surely nice and makes sense, no doubt.
> Best Regards
> Peter
> 
> On 04 Jul 2017, at 09:42, Luigi Ballabio <lui...@gm...> wrote:
> 
> Hello Hao,
>     that's great news---I've been wondering myself if this was possible.
> I'll be sure to check out your project.
> I suggest you also post to quantlib-users for greater exposure.
> 
> Later,
>     Luigi
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 5:24 AM Hao Zhang via QuantLib-dev <
> 
> qua...@li...> wrote:
> > Hello Everyone,
> > 
> > I have removed all Boost dependency from QuantLib, and ported QuantLib to
> > C++17. The code is hosted on GitHub (https://github.com/haozhangphd/
> > QuantLib-noBoost <https://github.com/haozhangphd/QuantLib-noBoost>).
> > 
> > The ported code passes all test cases, and there are significant
> > performance improvements in SOME functionalities. Using the QuantLib
> > Benchmark Suite, Quantlib-noBoost gives 3425 mflops (running time 13.15s),
> > while unmodified QuantLib gives 1440 mflops (running time 44.8s) on my
> > Dell
> > Inspiron 13 i7348 laptop, both running under identical conditions with
> > identical compiler flags. The total running time of the whole test suite
> > is
> > also shorter by ~10% after Boost is removed.
> > 
> > I will continue maintaining this project, and regularly backporting latest
> > commits from QuantLib. I will also make this project work on other
> > compilers besides GCC in the near future.
> > 
> > Best Regards,
> > 
> > Hao
> > 
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