Part (1/2): Active Objects for Asynchronous Logging.

Asynchronous physical humour 

In his 2010 Dr Dobbs article[1] Herb Sutter espouses

"Prefer Using Active Objects Instead of Naked Threads"

The laudability of this is derived from Sutter's 2009 and 2007 observations[2],[3] that

"Use Threads Correctly = Isolation + Asynchronous Messages" 

(N.B. It is fascinating to read Sutter's 2009[2] & 2007[3] similarities to Sir Tony Hoare[6] 1978 seminal work on Communicating Sequential Processes(CSP)[7] and J. Paul Morrison[8] 1970s original ideas on Flow-Based Programming(FBP)[9] but more of this later...)

TL;DR Think you can walk-the-walk? You don't know Jack about thread programming if you haven't read [3], [2] & [1]

Building Blocks: C++11 Smart Pointers for the Logger Services and C++11 alias idioms

You can tell the logging services software was knocked up quickly... I completely forgot to use C++11 smart pointers[1] as part of the expressed RAII design pattern. Consequently the destructor was busy doing the pointer deleting idioms so familiar of C++03 (even if it did use the C++11 range based for loop to do it!). The changes also utilise the C++11 approach alias creation as replacement for typedef[2].

TL;DR The logging services code uses smart pointers now, but where it makes sense and not where it would make usage verbose and obfuscated.

Back From 2 weeks Snowboarding in BC

Went to Candada with snowboarding buddies this is me (centre) about to drop some fresh lines from the top of Granite Mountain BC.