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<h2><a name="programming-with-concepts" id=
"programming-with-concepts">Programming with Concepts</a></h2>
<p>The process of deciding how to group requirements into concepts and
deciding which concepts to use in each algorithm is perhaps the most
difficult (yet most important) part of building a generic library. A
guiding principle to use during this process is one we call the
<i>requirement minimization principle</i>.</p>
<p><b>Requirement Minimization Principle:</b> Minimize the requirements on
the input parameters of a component to increase its reusability.</p>
<p>There is natural tension in this statement. By definition, the input
parameters must be used by the component in order for the component to
accomplish its task (by ``component'' we mean a function or class
template). The challenge then is to implement the component in such a way
that makes the fewest assumptions (the minimum requirements) about the
inputs while still accomplishing the task.</p>
<p>The traditional notions of <i>abstraction</i> tie in directly to the
idea of minimal requirements. The more abstract the input, the fewer the
requirements. Thus, concepts are simply the embodiment of generic abstract
data types in C++ template programming.</p>
<p>When designing the concepts for some problem domain it is important to
keep in mind their purpose, namely to express the requirements for the
input to the components. With respect to the requirement minimization
principle, this means we want to minimize concepts.
<!-- the following discussion does not match the Standard definition
of LessThanComparable and needs to be changed -Jeremy
<p>
It is important to note, however, that
minimizing concepts does not mean simply
reducing the number of valid expressions
in the concept.
For example, the
<tt>std::stable_sort()</tt> function requires that the value type of
the iterator be <a
href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/LessThanComparable.html">
LessThanComparable</a>, which not only
includes <tt>operator<()</tt>, but also <tt>operator>()</tt>,
<tt>operator<=()</tt>, and <tt>operator>=()</tt>.
It turns out that <tt>std::stable_sort()</tt> only uses
<tt>operator<()</tt>. The question then arises: should
<tt>std::stable_sort()</tt> be specified in terms of the concept
<a
href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/LessThanComparable.html">
LessThanComparable</a> or in terms of a concept that only
requires <tt>operator<()</tt>?
<p>
We remark first that the use of <a
href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/LessThanComparable.html">
LessThanComparable</a> does not really violate the requirement
minimization principle because all of the other operators can be
trivially implemented in terms of <tt>operator<()</tt>. By
``trivial'' we mean one line of code and a constant run-time cost.
More fundamentally, however, the use of <a
href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/LessThanComparable.html">
LessThanComparable</a> does not violate the requirement minimization
principle because all of the comparison operators (<tt><</tt>,
<tt>></tt>, <tt><=</tt>, <tt>>=</tt>) are conceptually equivalent (in
a mathematical sense). Adding conceptually equivalent valid
expressions is not a violation of the requirement minimization
principle because no new semantics are being added === only new
syntax. The added syntax increases re-usability.
<p>
For example,
the
maintainer of the <tt>std::stable_sort()</tt> may some day change the
implementation in places to use <tt>operator>()</tt> instead of
<tt>operator<()</tt>, since, after all, they are equivalent. Since the
requirements are part of the public interface, such a change could
potentially break client code. If instead
<a
href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/LessThanComparable.html">
LessThanComparable</a> is given as the requirement for
<tt>std::stable_sort()</tt>, then the maintainer is given a reasonable
amount of flexibility within which to work.
--></p>
<p>Minimality in concepts is a property associated with the underlying
semantics of the problem domain being represented. In the problem domain of
basic containers, requiring traversal in a single direction is a smaller
requirement than requiring traversal in both directions (hence the
distinction between <a href=
"http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/ForwardIterator.html">ForwardIterator</a> and
<a href=
"http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/BidirectionalIterator.html">BidirectionalIterator</a>).
The semantic difference can be easily seen in the difference between the
set of concrete data structures that have forward iterators versus the set
that has bidirectional iterators. For example, singly-linked lists would
fall in the set of data structures having forward iterators, but not
bidirectional iterators. In addition, the set of algorithms that one can
implement using only forward iterators is quite different than the set that
can be implemented with bidirectional iterators. Because of this, it is
important to factor families of requirements into rather fine-grained
concepts. For example, the requirements for iterators are factored into the
six STL iterator concepts (trivial, output, input, forward, bidirectional,
and random access).</p>
<p><a href="./implementation.htm">Next: Implementation</a><br />
<a href="./concept_covering.htm">Prev: Concept Covering and
Archetypes</a><br /></p>
<hr />
<table>
<tr valign="top">
<td nowrap="nowrap">Copyright © 2000</td>
<td><a href="http://www.boost.org/people/jeremy_siek.htm">Jeremy Siek</a>(<a href=
"mailto:jsiek@osl.iu.edu">jsiek@osl.iu.edu</a>) Andrew
Lumsdaine(<a href="mailto:lums@osl.iu.edu">lums@osl.iu.edu</a>),
2007 <a href="mailto:dave@boost-consulting.com">David Abrahams</a>.
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