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<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html" title="Contract Programming Overview">Contract
Programming Overview</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<div class="toc"><dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions">Assertions</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs">Benefits
and Costs</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls">Function
Calls</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls">Public
Function Calls</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constructor_calls">Constructor
Calls</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.destructor_calls">Destructor
Calls</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constant_correctness">Constant-Correctness</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.specifications_vs__implementation">Specifications
vs. Implementation</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures">On
Contract Failures</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary">Feature
Summary</a></span></dt>
</dl></div>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
<span class="emphasis"><em><span class="quote">“<span class="quote">It is absurd to make elaborate security checks on debugging
runs, when no trust is put in the results, and then remove them in production
runs, when an erroneous result could be expensive or disastrous. What would
we think of a sailing enthusiast who wears his life-jacket when training
on dry land but takes it off as soon as he goes to sea?</span>”</span></em></span>
</p></blockquote></div>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>-- Charles Antony Richard Hoare (see <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Hoare73_anchor">[Hoare73]</a>)</em></span>
</p></blockquote></div>
<p>
This section gives an overview of contract programming (see <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Meyer97_anchor">[Meyer97]</a>,
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Mitchell02_anchor">[Mitchell02]</a>, and <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1613_anchor">[N1613]</a>
for more extensive introductions to contract programming). Readers that already
have a basic understanding of contract programming can skip this section and
maybe come back to it after reading the <a class="link" href="tutorial.html" title="Tutorial">Tutorial</a>.
</p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
The objective of this library is not to convince programmers to use contract
programming. It is assumed that programmes understand the benefits and trade-offs
associated with contract programming and they have already decided to use
this methodology in their code. Then, this library aims to be the best and
more complete contract programming library for C++ (without using programs
and tools external to the C++ language and its preprocessor).
</p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions" title="Assertions">Assertions</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
Contract programming is characterized by the following assertion mechanisms:
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
<span class="emphasis"><em>Preconditions</em></span>: These are logical conditions that
programmers expect to be true when a function is called (e.g., to check
constraints on function arguments). Operations that logically have no
preconditions (i.e., that are always well-defined for the entire domain
of their inputs) are also referred to as having a <span class="emphasis"><em>wide contract</em></span>.
This is in contrast to operations that have preconditions which are also
referred to as having a <span class="emphasis"><em>narrow contract</em></span> (note that
operations with truly narrow contracts are also expected to never throw
exceptions because the implementation body of these operations is always
expected to succeed after its preconditions are checked to be true).
<a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f0" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f0"><sup class="footnote">[6]</sup></a>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="emphasis"><em>Postconditions</em></span>: These are logical conditions that
programmers expect to be true when a function exits without throwing
an exception (e.g., to check the result and any side effect that a function
might have). Postconditions can access the function return value (for
non-void functions) and also <span class="emphasis"><em>old values</em></span> (which are
the values that expressions had before the function implementation was
executed).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="emphasis"><em>Exception guarantees</em></span>: These are logical conditions
that programmers except to be true when a function exits throwing an
exception. Exception guarantees can access old values (but not the function
return value). <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f1" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f1"><sup class="footnote">[7]</sup></a>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="emphasis"><em>Class invariants</em></span>: These are logical conditions that
programmers expect to be true after a constructor exits without throwing
an exception, before and after the execution of every non-static public
function (even if they throw exceptions), before the destructor is executed
(and also after the destructor is executed but only when the destructor
throws an exception). Class invariants define valid states for all objects
of a given class. It is possible to specify a different set of class
invariants for volatile public functions, namely <span class="emphasis"><em>volatile class
invariants</em></span>. It is also possible to specify <span class="emphasis"><em>static
class invariants</em></span> which are excepted to be true before and
after the execution of any constructor, destructor (even if it does not
throw an exception), and public function (even if static). <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f2" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f2"><sup class="footnote">[8]</sup></a>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="emphasis"><em>Subcontracting</em></span>: This indicates that preconditions
cannot be strengthen, while postconditions and class invariants cannot
be weaken when a public function in a derived class overrides public
functions in one or more of its base classes (this is formally defined
according to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a>).
</li>
</ul></div>
<p>
The actual function implementation code, that remains outside of these contract
assertions, is often referred to as the <span class="emphasis"><em>function body</em></span>
in contract programming.
</p>
<p>
Class invariants can also be used to specify <span class="emphasis"><em>basic</em></span> exception
safety guarantees for an object (because they are checked at exit of public
functions even when those throw exceptions). Contract assertions for exception
guarantees can be used to specify <span class="emphasis"><em>strong</em></span> exception safety
guarantees for a given operation on the same object.
</p>
<p>
It is also a common requirement for contract programming to automatically
disable contract checking while already checking assertions from another
contract (in order to avoid infinite recursion while checking contract assertions).
</p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
This library implements this requirement but in order to globally disable
assertions while checking another assertion some kind of global arbitrating
variable needs to be used by this library implementation. This library
will automatically protect such a global variable from race conditions
in multi-threated programs, but this will effectively introduce a global
lock in the program (the <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039741520.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_DISABLE_THREADS">BOOST_CONTRACT_DISABLE_THREADS</a></code>
macro can be defined to disable this global lock but at the risk of incurring
in race conditions). <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f3" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f3"><sup class="footnote">[9]</sup></a>
</p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
In general, it is recommended to specify different contract conditions using
separate assertion statements and not to group them together into a single
condition using logical operators (<code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">&amp;&amp;</span></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">||</span></code>, etc.). This is because when
contract conditions are programmed together in a single assertion using logical
operators, it might not be clear which condition actually failed in case
the entire assertion fails at run-time.
</p>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.h0"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.c_style_assertions"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.c_style_assertions">C-Style
Assertions</a>
</h5>
<p>
A limited form of contract programming (typically some form of precondition
and basic postcondition checking) can be achieved using the C-style <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code> macro. Using <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code>
is common practice for many programmers but it suffers of the following limitations:
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code> does not distinguish
between preconditions and postconditions. In well-tested production code,
postconditions can usually be disabled trusting the correctness of the
implementation while preconditions might still need to remain enabled
because of possible changes in the calling code (e.g., postconditions
of a given library could be disabled after testing while keeping the
library preconditions enabled given that future changes in the user code
that calls the library cannot be anticipated). Using <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code>
it is not possible to selectively disable only postconditions and all
assertions must be disabled at once.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code> requires to manually
program extra code to correctly check postconditions (specifically to
handle functions with multiple return statements, to not check postconditions
when functions throw exceptions, and to implement old values).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code> requires to manually
program extra code to check class invariants (extra member functions,
try blocks, etc.).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code> does not support
subcontracting.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code> calls are usually
scattered within function implementations thus the asserted conditions
are not immediately visible in their entirety by programmers (as they
are instead when the assertions appear in the function declaration or
at least at the very top of the function definition).
</li>
</ul></div>
<p>
Contract programming does not suffer of these limitations.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs" title="Benefits and Costs">Benefits
and Costs</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.h0"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.benefits"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.benefits">Benefits</a>
</h5>
<p>
The main use of contract programming is to improve software quality. <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Meyer97_anchor">[Meyer97]</a> discusses how contract programming
can be used as the basic tool to write <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">correct</span>”</span> software.
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Stroustrup94_anchor">[Stroustrup94]</a> discusses the key
importance of class invariants plus advantages and disadvantages of preconditions
and postconditions.
</p>
<p>
The following is a short summary of benefits associated with contract programming
inspired mainly by <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1613_anchor">[N1613]</a>:
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
Preconditions and postconditions: Using function preconditions and postconditions,
programmers can give a precise semantic description of what a function
requires at its entry and what it ensures at its exit (if it does not
throw an exception). In particular, using postcondition old values, contract
programming provides a mechanism that allows programmers to compare values
of an expression before and after the function body execution. This mechanism
is powerful enough to enable programmers to express many correctness
constraints within the code itself, constraints that would otherwise
have to be captured at best only informally by documentation.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Class invariants: Using class invariants, programmers can describe what
to expect from a class and the logic dependencies between the class members.
It is the job of the constructor to ensure that the class invariants
are satisfied when the object is first created. Then the implementation
of the member functions can be largely simplified as they can be written
knowing that the class invariants are satisfied because contract programming
checks them before and after the execution of every public function.
Finally, the destructor makes sure that the class invariants held for
the entire life of the object checking the class invariants one last
time before the object is destructed. Class invariants can also be used
as a criteria for good abstractions: If it is not possible to specify
an invariant, it might be an indication that the design abstraction maybe
be poor and it should not have been made into a class (maybe a namespace
would have sufficed instead).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Self-documenting code: Contracts are part of the source code, they are
checked at run-time so they are always up-to-date with the code itself.
Therefore program specifications, as documented by the contracts, can
be trusted to always be up-to-date with the implementation.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Easier debugging: Contract programming can provide a powerful debugging
facility because, if contracts are well-written, bugs will cause contract
assertions to fail exactly where the problem first occurs instead than
at some later stage of the program execution in an apparently unrelated
(and often hard to debug) manner. Note that a precondition failure points
to a bug in the function caller, a postcondition failure points instead
to a bug in the function implementation. <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.f0" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.f0"><sup class="footnote">[10]</sup></a>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Easier testing: Contract programming facilitates testing because a contract
naturally specifies what a test should check. For example, preconditions
of a function state which inputs cause the function to fail and postconditions
state which outputs are produced by the function on successful exit (contract
programming should be seen as a tool to complement and guide, but obviously
not to replace, testing).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Formal design: Contract programming can serve to reduce the gap between
designers and programmers by providing a precise and unambiguous specification
language in terms of contract assertions. Moreover, contracts can make
code reviews easier by clarifying some of the semantics and usage of
the code.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Formalize inheritance: Contract programming formalizes the virtual function
overriding mechanism using subcontracting as justified by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a>. This keeps the base class programmers in control as
overriding functions always have to fully satisfy the contracts of their
base classes.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Replace defensive programming: Contract programming assertions can replace
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_programming" target="_top">defensive
programming</a> checks localizing these checks within the contracts
and making the code more readable.
</li>
</ul></div>
<p>
Of course, not all formal contract specifications can be asserted in C++.
For example, in C++ is it not possible to assert the validity of an iterator
range in the general case (because the only way to check if two iterators
form a valid range is to keep incrementing the first iterator until it reaches
the second iterator, but if the iterator range is invalid then such a code
would render undefined behaviour or run forever instead of failing an assertion).
Nevertheless, a large amount of contract assertions can be successfully programmed
in C++ as illustrated by the numerous examples in this documentation and
from the literature (for example see how much of STL <a class="link" href="examples.html#N1962_vector_anchor"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">vector</span></code></a> contract assertions can actually
be programmed in C++ using this library).
</p>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.h1"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.costs"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.costs">Costs</a>
</h5>
<p>
In general, contract programming benefits come at the cost of performance
as discussed in detail by both <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Stroustrup94_anchor">[Stroustrup94]</a>
and <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Meyer97_anchor">[Meyer97]</a>. While performance trade-offs
should be carefully considered depending on the specific application domain,
software quality cannot be sacrificed: It is difficult to see value in software
that quickly and efficiently provides incorrect results.
</p>
<p>
The run-time performances are negatively impacted by contract programming
mainly because of extra time require to:
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
Check the asserted conditions.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Copy old values when these are used in postconditions or exception guarantees.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Call additional functors that check preconditions, postconditions, exception
guarantees, class invariants, etc. (these can add up to many extra calls
especially when using subcontracting).
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
In general, contracts introduce at least three extra functor calls to check
preconditions, postconditions, and exception guarantees for any given non-member
function call. Public functions introduce also two more function calls
to check class invariants (at entry and at exit). For subcontracting, these
extra calls (some of which become virtual calls) are repeated for the number
of functions being overridden from the base classes (possibly deep in the
inheritance tree). In addition to that, this library introduces a number
of function calls internal to its implementation in order to properly check
the contracts.
</p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
To mitigate the run-time performance impact, programmers can selectively
disable run-time checking of some of the contract assertions. Programmers
will have to decide based on the performance trade-offs required by their
specific applications, but a reasonable approach often is to (see <a class="link" href="extras.html#boost_contract.extras.disable_contract_checking" title="Disable Contract Checking">Disable
Contract Checking</a>):
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
Always write contracts to clarify the semantics of the design embedding
the specifications directly in the code and making the code self-documenting.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check preconditions, postconditions, class invariants, and maybe even
exception guarantees during initial testing.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check only preconditions (and maybe class invariants, but not postconditions
and exception guarantees) during release testing and for the final release.
</li>
</ul></div>
<p>
This approach is usually reasonable because in well-tested production code,
validating the function body implementation using postconditions is rarely
needed since the function has shown itself to be <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">correct</span>”</span> during
testing. On the other hand, checking function arguments using preconditions
is always needed because of changes that can be made to the calling code
(without having to necessarily re-test and re-release the called code). Furthermore,
postconditions and also exception guarantees, with related old value copies,
are often computationally more expensive to check than preconditions and
class invariants.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls" title="Function Calls">Function
Calls</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls.h0"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls.non_member_functions"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls.non_member_functions">Non-Member
Functions</a>
</h5>
<p>
A call to a non-member function with a contract executes the following steps
(see <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/function.html" title="Function function">boost::contract::function</a></code>):
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
Check function preconditions.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Execute the function body.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If the body did not throw an exception, check function postconditions.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Else, check function exception guarantees.
</li>
</ol></div>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls.h1"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls.private_and_protected_functions"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.function_calls.private_and_protected_functions">Private
and Protected Functions</a>
</h5>
<p>
Private and protected functions do not have to satisfy class invariants because
these functions are part of the class implementation and not of the class
public interface. Furthermore, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a> does not apply to private and protected functions because
these functions are not accessible to the user at the calling site where
the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a> applies.
</p>
<p>
Therefore, calls to private and protected functions with contracts execute
the same steps as the ones indicated above for non-member functions (checking
only preconditions and postconditions, without checking class invariants
and without subcontracting).
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls" title="Public Function Calls">Public
Function Calls</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.h0"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.overriding_public_functions"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.overriding_public_functions">Overriding
Public Functions</a>
</h5>
<p>
Let's consider a public function in a derived class that overrides public
virtual functions declared by its public base classes (because of C++ multiple
inheritance, the function could override from more than one of its base classes).
We refer to the function in the derived class as the <span class="emphasis"><em>overriding
function</em></span>, and to the set of base classes containing all the <span class="emphasis"><em>overridden
functions</em></span> as <span class="emphasis"><em>overridden bases</em></span>.
</p>
<p>
When subcontracting, overridden functions are searched (at compile-time)
deeply in all public branches of the inheritance tree (i.e., not just the
derived class' direct public parents are inspected, but also all its public
grandparents, etc.). In case of multiple inheritance, this search also extends
(at compile-time) widely to all public trees of the multiple inheritance
forest (multiple public base classes are searched following their order of
declaration in the derived class' inheritance list). As usual with C++ multiple
inheritance, this search could result in multiple overridden functions and
therefore in subcontracting from multiple public base classes. Note that
only public base classes are considered for subcontracting because private
and protected base classes are not accessible to the user at the calling
site where the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a> applies.
</p>
<p>
A call to the overriding public function with a contract executes the following
steps (see <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/public_f_idm45028038882752.html" title="Function template public_function">boost::contract::public_function</a></code>):
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
non-static class invariants for all overridden bases, <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
then check the derived class static <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
non-static invariants.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check preconditions of overridden public functions from all overridden
bases in <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#or_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>OR</em></span></code></a>
with each other, <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#or_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>OR</em></span></code></a>
else check the overriding function preconditions in the derived class.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Execute the overriding function body.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
non-static class invariants for all overridden bases, <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
then check the derived class static <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
non-static invariants (even if the body threw an exception).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If the body did not throw an exception, check postconditions of overridden
public functions from all overridden bases in <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
with each other, <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
then check the overriding function postconditions in the derived class.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Else, check exception guarantees of overridden public functions from
all overridden bases in <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
with each other, <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
then check the overriding function exception guarantees in the derived
class.
</li>
</ol></div>
<p>
Volatile public functions check static class invariants <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
volatile class invariants instead. Preconditions and postconditions of volatile
public functions and volatile class invariants access the object as <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">volatile</span></code>.
</p>
<p>
Class invariants are checked before preconditions and postconditions so programming
precondition and postcondition assertions can be simplified assuming that
class invariants are satisfied already (e.g., if class invariants assert
that a pointer cannot be null then preconditions and postconditions can safety
dereference that pointer without additional checking). Similarly, static
class invariants are checked before non-static class invariants so programming
non-static class invariant (volatile and non) can be simplified assuming
that static class invariants are satisfied already. Furthermore, subcontracting
checks contracts of public base classes before checking the derived class
contracts so programming derived class contract assertions can be simplified
by assuming that public base class contracts are satisfied already.
</p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">
<p>
<a name="and_anchor"></a><a name="or_anchor"></a>In this documentation
<a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
and <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#or_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>OR</em></span></code></a>
indicate the logic <span class="emphasis"><em>and</em></span> and <span class="emphasis"><em>or</em></span>
operations evaluated in <span class="emphasis"><em>short-circuit</em></span>. For example:
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">p</span></code> <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">q</span></code> is true if and only if
both <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">p</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">q</span></code> are true, but <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">q</span></code>
is never evaluated when <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">p</span></code>
is false; <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">p</span></code> <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#or_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>OR</em></span></code></a>
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">q</span></code> is true if and only if
either <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">p</span></code> or <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">q</span></code> are true, but <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">q</span></code>
is never evaluated when <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">p</span></code>
is true.
</p>
<p>
As indicated by the steps above and in accordance with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a>, subcontracting checks preconditions in <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#or_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>OR</em></span></code></a>
while class invariants, postconditions, and exceptions guarantees are checked
in <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
with preconditions, class invariants, postconditions, and exceptions guarantees
of base classes respectively.
</p>
</td></tr>
</table></div>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.h1"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.non_overriding_public_functions"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.non_overriding_public_functions">Non-Overriding
Public Functions</a>
</h5>
<p>
A call to a non-static public function with a contract (that does not override
functions from any of its public base classes) executes the following steps
(see <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/public_f_idm45028038882752.html" title="Function template public_function">boost::contract::public_function</a></code>):
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
Check class static <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
non-static invariants (but none of the invariants from base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check function preconditions (but none of the preconditions from functions
in base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Execute the function body.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check the class static <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
non-static invariants (even if the body threw an exception, but none
of the invariants from base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If the body did not throw an exception, check function postconditions
(but none of the postconditions from functions in base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Else, check function exception guarantees (but none of the exception
guarantees from functions in base classes).
</li>
</ol></div>
<p>
Volatile public functions check static class invariants <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
volatile class invariants instead. Preconditions and postconditions of volatile
functions and volatile class invariants access the object as <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">volatile</span></code>.
</p>
<p>
Class invariants are checked because this function is part of the class public
interface. However, none of the contracts of the base classes are checked
because this function does not override any functions from any of the public
base classes (so the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a> does not require to subcontract in this case).
</p>
<h5>
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.h2"></a>
<span class="phrase"><a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.static_public_functions"></a></span><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.public_function_calls.static_public_functions">Static
Public Functions</a>
</h5>
<p>
A call to a static public function with a contract executes the following
steps (see <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/public_f_idm45028038882752.html" title="Function template public_function">boost::contract::public_function</a></code>):
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants (but not the non-static invariants and
none of the invariants from base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check function preconditions (but none of the preconditions from functions
in base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Execute the function body.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants (even if the body threw an exception, but
not the non-static invariants and none of the invariants from base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If the body did not throw an exception, check function postconditions
(but none of the postconditions from functions in base classes).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Else, check function exception guarantees (but none of the exception
guarantees from functions in base classes).
</li>
</ol></div>
<p>
Class invariants are checked because this function is part of the class public
interface, but only static class invariants can be checked (because this
is a static function so it cannot access the object that would instead be
required to check non-static class invariants, volatile or not). Furthermore,
static functions cannot override any function so the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a> does not apply and they do not subcontract.
</p>
<p>
Preconditions and postconditions of static functions and static class invariants
cannot access the object (because they are checked from <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">static</span></code>
member functions).
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constructor_calls"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constructor_calls" title="Constructor Calls">Constructor
Calls</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
A call to a constructor with a contract executes the following steps (see
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/constructor_precondition.html" title="Class template constructor_precondition">boost::contract::constructor_precondition</a></code>
and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/constructor.html" title="Function template constructor">boost::contract::constructor</a></code>):
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
Check constructor preconditions (but these cannot access the object because
the object is not constructed yet).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Execute the constructor member initialization list (if present).
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="a"><li class="listitem">
Construct any base class (public or not) according with C++ construction
mechanism and also check the contracts of these base constructors
(according with steps similar to the ones listed here).
</li></ol></div>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants (but not the non-static or volatile class
invariants, because the object is not constructed yet).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Execute the constructor body.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants (even if the body threw an exception).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If the body did not throw an exception:
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="a">
<li class="listitem">
Check non-static <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
volatile class invariants (because the object is now successfully
constructed).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check constructor postconditions (but these cannot access the object
old value <code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>oldof</em></span></code><code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">(*</span><span class="keyword">this</span><span class="special">)</span></code> because the object was not constructed
before the execution of the constructor body).
</li>
</ol></div>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Else, check constructor exception guarantees (but these cannot access
the object old value <code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>oldof</em></span></code><code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">(*</span><span class="keyword">this</span><span class="special">)</span></code> because the object was not constructed
before the execution of the constructor body, plus they can only access
class' static members because the object has not been successfully constructed
given the constructor body threw an exception in this case).
</li>
</ol></div>
<p>
Constructor preconditions are checked before executing the member initialization
list so programming these initializations can be simplified assuming the
constructor preconditions are satisfied (e.g., constructor arguments can
be validated by the constructor preconditions before they are used to initialize
base classes and data members).
</p>
<p>
As indicated in step 2.a. above, C++ object construction mechanism will automatically
check base class contracts when these bases are initialized (no explicit
subcontracting behaviour is required here).
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.destructor_calls"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.destructor_calls" title="Destructor Calls">Destructor
Calls</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
A call to a destructor with a contract executes the following steps (see
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/destructor.html" title="Function template destructor">boost::contract::destructor</a></code>):
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
non-static <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
volatile class invariants.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Execute the destructor body (destructors have no parameters and they
can be called at any time after object construction so they have no preconditions).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check static class invariants (even if the body threw an exception).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If the body did not throw an exception:
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="a">
<li class="listitem">
Check destructor postconditions (but these can only access class'
static members and the object old value <code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>oldof</em></span></code><code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">(*</span><span class="keyword">this</span><span class="special">)</span></code> because the object has been destroyed
after successful execution of the destructor body). <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.destructor_calls.f0" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.destructor_calls.f0"><sup class="footnote">[11]</sup></a>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Destroy any base class (public or not) according with C++ destruction
mechanism and also check the contracts of these base destructors
(according with steps similar to the ones listed here).
</li>
</ol></div>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Else (even if destructors should rarely, if ever, be allowed to throw
exceptions in C++):
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="a">
<li class="listitem">
Check non-static <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#and_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>AND</em></span></code></a>
volatile class invariants (because the object was not successfully
destructed so it still exists and should satisfy its invariants).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Check destructor exception guarantees.
</li>
</ol></div>
</li>
</ol></div>
<p>
As indicated in step 4.b. above, C++ object destruction mechanism will automatically
check base class contracts when the destructor exits without throwing an
exception (no explicit subcontracting behaviour is required here).
</p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
Given that C++ allows destructors to throw, this library handles the case
when the destructor body throws an exception as indicated above. However,
in order to comply with STL exception safety guarantees and good C++ programming
practices, programmers should implement destructor bodies to rarely, if
ever, throw exceptions (in fact destructors are implicitly declared <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">noexcept</span></code> in C++11).
</p></td></tr>
</table></div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constant_correctness"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constant_correctness" title="Constant-Correctness">Constant-Correctness</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
Contracts should not be allowed to modify the program state because they
are only responsible to check (and not to change) the program state in order
to verify its compliance with the specifications. Therefore, contracts should
only access objects, function arguments, function return values, old values,
and all other program variables in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">const</span></code>
context (via <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">&amp;</span></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">*</span>
<span class="keyword">const</span></code>, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">const</span>
<span class="keyword">volatile</span></code>, etc.).
</p>
<p>
Whenever possible (e.g., class invariants and postcondition old values),
this library automatically enforces this <span class="emphasis"><em>constant-correctness constraint</em></span>
at compile-time using <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">const</span></code>.
However, this library cannot automatically enforce this constraint in all
cases (for preconditions and postconditions of mutable member functions,
for global variables, etc.). See <a class="link" href="extras.html#boost_contract.extras.no_lambda_functions__no_c__11_" title="No Lambda Functions (No C++11)">No
Lambda Functions</a> for ways of using this library that enforce the constant-correctness
constraint at compile-time (but at the cost of significant boiler-plate code
to be programmed manually so not recommended in general).
</p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
In general, it is the responsibility of the programmers to code assertions
that only check, and do not change, program variables. <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constant_correctness.f0" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constant_correctness.f0"><sup class="footnote">[12]</sup></a>
</p></td></tr>
</table></div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.specifications_vs__implementation"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.specifications_vs__implementation" title="Specifications vs. Implementation">Specifications
vs. Implementation</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
Contracts are part of the program specification and not of its implementation.
Therefore, contracts should ideally be programmed within C++ declarations,
and not within definitions.
</p>
<p>
In general, this library cannot satisfy this requirement. However, even when
contracts are programmed together with the body in the function definition,
it is still fairly easy for users to identify and read just the contract
portion of the function definition (because the contract code must always
be programmed at the very top of the function definition). See <a class="link" href="extras.html#boost_contract.extras.separate_body_implementation" title="Separate Body Implementation">Separate
Body Implementation</a> for ways of using this library to program contract
specifications outside of the body implementation (but at the cost of writing
one extra function for any given function so not recommended in general).
</p>
<p>
Furthermore, contracts are most useful when they assert conditions only using
public members (in most cases, the need for using non-public members to check
contracts, especially in preconditions, indicates an error in the class design).
For example, the caller of a public function cannot in general make sure
that the function preconditions are satisfied if the precondition assertions
use private members that are not callable by the caller (therefore, a failure
in the preconditions will not necessarily indicate a bug in the caller given
that the caller was made unable to fully check the preconditions in the first
place). However, given that C++ provides programmers ways around access level
restrictions (<code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">friend</span></code>, function
pointers, etc.), this library leaves it up to programmers to make sure that
only public members are used in contract assertions (especially in preconditions).
(<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> follows the same approach not
restricting contracts to only use public members, Eiffel instead generates
a compile-time error if preconditions are asserted using non-public members.)
<a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.specifications_vs__implementation.f0" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.specifications_vs__implementation.f0"><sup class="footnote">[13]</sup></a>
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures" title="On Contract Failures">On
Contract Failures</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
If preconditions, postconditions, exception guarantees, or class invariants
are either checked to be false or their evaluation throws an exception at
run-time then this library will call specific <span class="emphasis"><em>failure handler functions</em></span>.
<a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f0" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f0"><sup class="footnote">[14]</sup></a>
</p>
<p>
By default, these failure handler functions print a message to the standard
error <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">cerr</span></code> (with detailed information about the
failure) and then terminate the program calling <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">terminate</span></code>.
However, using <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/set_precondition_failure.html" title="Function set_precondition_failure">boost::contract::set_precondition_failure</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/set_postcondition_failure.html" title="Function set_postcondition_failure">boost::contract::set_postcondition_failure</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/set_except_failure.html" title="Function set_except_failure">boost::contract::set_except_failure</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/set_invariant_failure.html" title="Function set_invariant_failure">boost::contract::set_invariant_failure</a></code>,
etc. programmers can define their own failure handler functions that can
take any user-specified action (throw an exception, exit the program with
an error code, etc., see <a class="link" href="advanced.html#boost_contract.advanced.throw_on_failures__and__noexcept__" title="Throw on Failures (and noexcept)">Throw
on Failures</a>). <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f1" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f1"><sup class="footnote">[15]</sup></a>
</p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
In C++ there are a number of issues with programming contract failure handlers
that throw exceptions instead of terminating the program. Specifically,
destructors check class invariants so they will throw if programmers change
class invariant failure handlers to throw instead of terminating the program,
but in general destructors should not throw in C++ (to comply with STL
exception safety, C++11 implicit <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">noexcept</span></code>
declarations for destructors, etc.). Furthermore, programming a failure
handler that throws on exception guarantee failures results in throwing
an exception (the one reporting the contract failure) while there is already
an active exception (the one that caused the exception guarantees to be
checked in the first place), and this will force C++ to terminate the program
anyway.
</p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
Therefore, it is recommended to terminate the program at least for contract
failures from destructors and exception guarantees (if not in all other cases
of contract failures as it is done by default by this library). The contract
failure handler functions programmed using this library have information
about the failed contract (preconditions, postconditions, etc.) and the operation
that was checking the contract (constructor, destructor, etc.) so programmers
can granularly distinguish all cases and decide when it is appropriate to
terminate, throw, or take some other user-specific action.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary"></a><a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary" title="Feature Summary">Feature
Summary</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
The contract programming features supported by this library are largely based
on <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> and on the Eiffel programming
language.
</p>
<p>
The following table compares contract programming features among this library,
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> (unfortunately the C++ standard
committee rejected this proposal commenting on a lack of interest in adding
contract programming to C++ at that time, even if <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a>
itself is sound), a more recent proposal <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#P0380_anchor">[P0380]</a>
(which was accepted in the C++20 standard but unfortunately only supports
preconditions and postconditions, while does not support class invariants,
old values, and subcontracting), the Eiffel and D programming languages.
Some of the items listed in this summary table will become clear in detail
after reading the remaining sections of this documentation.
</p>
<div class="informaltable"><table class="table">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<thead><tr>
<th>
<p>
Feature
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>
This Library
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> Proposal (not accepted
in C++)
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>
C++20 (see <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#P0380_anchor">[P0380]</a>)
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>
ISE Eiffel 5.4 (see <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Meyer97_anchor">[Meyer97]</a>)
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>
D (see <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Bright04_anchor">[Bright04]</a>)
</p>
</th>
</tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Keywords and specifiers</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Specifiers: <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">precondition</span></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">postcondition</span></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">invariant</span></code>, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">static_invariant</span></code>, and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">base_types</span></code>. The last three specifiers
appear in user code so their names can be referred to or changed
using <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CONTRACT_INVARIANT.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_INVARIANT">BOOST_CONTRACT_INVARIANT</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028038619104.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_STATIC_INVARIANT">BOOST_CONTRACT_STATIC_INVARIANT</a></code>,
and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039730032.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_BASES_TYPEDEF">BOOST_CONTRACT_BASES_TYPEDEF</a></code>
macros respectively to avoid name clashes.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Keywords: <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">precondition</span></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">postcondition</span></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">oldof</span></code>, and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">invariant</span></code>.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Attributes: <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">expects</span><span class="special">]]</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">ensures</span><span class="special">]]</span></code>.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Keywords: <code class="literal">require</code>, <code class="literal">require else</code>,
<code class="literal">ensure</code>, <code class="literal">ensure then</code>, <code class="literal">old</code>,
<code class="literal">result</code>, <code class="literal">do</code>, and <code class="literal">invariant</code>.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Keywords: <code class="literal">in</code>, <code class="literal">out</code>, <code class="literal">do</code>,
<code class="literal">assert</code>, and <code class="literal">invariant</code>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>On contract failures</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Print an error to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">cerr</span></code>
and call <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">terminate</span></code> (but can be customized
to throw exceptions, exit with an error code, etc.).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Call <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">terminate</span></code> (but can be customized
to throw exceptions, exit with an error code, etc.).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Call <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">abort</span></code> (but can be customized
to throw exceptions, exit with an error code, etc.).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Throw exceptions.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Throw exceptions.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Return values in postconditions</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, captured by or passed as a parameter to (for virtual functions)
the postcondition functor.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">postcondition</span><span class="special">(</span></code><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>result-variable-name</em></span></code><code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">)</span></code>.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">ensures</span>
</code><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>result-variable-name</em></span></code><code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">:</span> <span class="special">...]]</span></code>.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, <code class="literal">result</code> keyword.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">out</span><span class="special">(</span></code><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>result-variable-name</em></span></code><code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">)</span></code>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Old values in postconditions</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CONTRACT_OLDOF.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_OLDOF">BOOST_CONTRACT_OLDOF</a></code>
macro and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/old_ptr.html" title="Class template old_ptr">boost::contract::old_ptr</a></code>
(but copied before preconditions unless <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">old</span><span class="special">(...)</span></code>
is used as shown in <a class="link" href="advanced.html#boost_contract.advanced.old_values_copied_at_body" title="Old Values Copied at Body">Old
Values Copied at Body</a>). For templates, <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/old_ptr_if_copyable.html" title="Class template old_ptr_if_copyable">boost::contract::old_ptr_if_copyable</a></code>
skips old value copies for non-copyable types and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/condition_if.html" title="Function template condition_if">boost::contract::condition_if</a></code>
skips old value copies selectively based on old expression type
requirements (on compilers that do not support <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">if</span>
<span class="keyword">constexpr</span></code>).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">oldof</span></code> keyword
(copied right after preconditions). (Never skipped, not even in
templates for non-copyable types.)
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, <code class="literal">old</code> keyword (copied right after preconditions).
(Never skipped, but all types are copyable in Eiffel.)
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Class invariants</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, checked at constructor exit, at destructor entry and throw,
and at public function entry, exit, and throw. Same for volatile
class invariants. Static class invariants checked at entry, exit,
and throw for constructors, destructors, and any (also <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">static</span></code>) public function.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, checked at constructor exit, at destructor entry and throw,
and at public function entry, exit, and throw. (Volatile and static
class invariants not supported.)
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, checked at constructor exit, and around public functions.
(Volatile and static class invariants do not apply to Eiffel.)
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, checked at constructor exit, at destructor entry, and around
public functions. However, invariants cannot call public functions
(to avoid infinite recursion because D does not disable contracts
while checking other contracts). (Volatile and static class invariants
not supported, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">volatile</span></code>
was deprecated all together in D.)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Subcontracting</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, also supports subcontracting for multiple inheritance (<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CONTRACT_BASE_TYPES.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_BASE_TYPES">BOOST_CONTRACT_BASE_TYPES</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CONTRACT_OVERRIDE.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_OVERRIDE">BOOST_CONTRACT_OVERRIDE</a></code>,
and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/contract/virtual_.html" title="Class virtual_">boost::contract::virtual_</a></code>
are used to declare base classes, overrides and virtual public
functions respectively).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, also supports subcontracting for multiple inheritance, but
preconditions cannot be subcontracted. <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f0" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f0"><sup class="footnote">[a]</sup></a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Contracts for pure virtual functions</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (programmed via out-of-line functions as always in C++ with
pure virtual function definitions).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No (because no subcontracting).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (contracts for abstract functions).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Arbitrary code in contracts</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (but users are generally recommended to only program assertions
using <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CONTRACT_ASSERT.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_ASSERT">BOOST_CONTRACT_ASSERT</a></code>
and if-guard statements within contracts to avoid introducing bugs
and expensive code in contracts, and also to only use public functions
to program preconditions).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No, assertions only (use of only public functions to program preconditions
is recommended but not prescribed).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No, assertions only (in addition contracts of public, protected,
and private members can only use other public, public/protected,
and public/protected/private members respectively).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No, assertions only (in addition only public members can be used
in preconditions).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Constant-correctness</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No, enforced only for class invariants and old values (making also
preconditions and postconditions constant-correct is possible but
requires users to program a fare amount of boiler-plate code).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (side effects in contracts lead to undefined behaviour).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No, enforced only for class invariants.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Contracts in specifications</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No, in function definitions instead (unless programmers manually
write an extra function for any given function).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (in function declarations).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (in function declarations).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Function code ordering</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Preconditions, postconditions, exception guarantees, body.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Preconditions, postconditions, body.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Preconditions, postconditions, body.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Preconditions, body, postconditions.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Preconditions, postconditions, body.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Disable assertion checking within assertions checking
(to avoid infinite recursion when checking contracts)</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, but use <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039682816.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_PRECONDITIONS_DISABLE_NO_ASSERTION">BOOST_CONTRACT_PRECONDITIONS_DISABLE_NO_ASSERTION</a></code>
to disable no assertion while checking preconditions (see also
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039677008.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_ALL_DISABLE_NO_ASSERTION">BOOST_CONTRACT_ALL_DISABLE_NO_ASSERTION</a></code>).
<a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f1" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f1"><sup class="footnote">[b]</sup></a> (In multi-threaded programs this introduces a global
lock, see <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039741520.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_DISABLE_THREADS">BOOST_CONTRACT_DISABLE_THREADS</a></code>.)
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes for class invariants and postconditions, but preconditions
disable no assertion.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Nested member function calls</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Disable nothing. <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f2" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f2"><sup class="footnote">[c]</sup></a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Disable nothing.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Disable nothing.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Disable all contract assertions.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Disable nothing.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Disable contract checking</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, contract checking can be skipped at run-time by defining combinations
of the <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039660048.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_PRECONDITIONS">BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_PRECONDITIONS</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039653664.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_POSTCONDITIONS">BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_POSTCONDITIONS</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039619664.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_INVARIANTS">BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_INVARIANTS</a></code>,
<code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039634896.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_ENTRY_INVARIANTS">BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_ENTRY_INVARIANTS</a></code>,
and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039627280.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_EXIT_INVARIANTS">BOOST_CONTRACT_NO_EXIT_INVARIANTS</a></code>
macros (completely removing contract code from compiled object
code is also possible but requires using macros as shown in <a class="link" href="extras.html#boost_contract.extras.disable_contract_compilation__macro_interface_" title="Disable Contract Compilation (Macro Interface)">Disable
Contract Compilation</a>).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (contract code also removed from compiled object code, but
details are compiler-implementation specific).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes (contract code also removed from compiled object code, but
details are compiler-implementation specific).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, but only predefined combinations of preconditions, postconditions,
and class invariants can be disabled (contract code also removed
from compiled object code).
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Assertion levels</em></span>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, predefined default, audit, and axiom, in addition programmers
can also define their own levels.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No (but a previous revision of this proposal considered adding
assertion levels under the name of "assertion ordering").
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Yes, predefined default, audit, and axiom.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
No.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody class="footnotes"><tr><td colspan="6">
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f0" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f0" class="para"><sup class="para">[a] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> The authors of <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> decided to forbid derived
classes from subcontracting preconditions because they found
that such a feature was rarely, if ever, used (see <a href="http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2010/04/164862.php" target="_top">Re:
[boost] [contract] diff n1962</a>). Still, it should be noted
that even in <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> if a
derived class overrides two functions with preconditions coming
from two different base classes via multiple inheritance, the
overriding function contract will check preconditions from its
two base class functions in <a class="link" href="contract_programming_overview.html#or_anchor"><code class="literal"><span class="emphasis"><em>OR</em></span></code></a>
(so even in <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> preconditions
can indirectly subcontract when multiple inheritance is used).
Furthermore, subcontracting preconditions is soundly defined
by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle" target="_top">substitution
principle</a> so this library allows to subcontract preconditions
as Eiffel does (users can always avoid using this feature if
they have no need for it). (This is essentially the only feature
on which this library deliberately differs from <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a>.)
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f1" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f1" class="para"><sup class="para">[b] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> Technically, it can
be shown that an invalid argument can reach the function body
when assertion checking is disabled while checking preconditions
(that is why <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> does
not disable any assertion while checking preconditions, see
<a href="http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2010/04/164862.php" target="_top">Re:
[boost] [contract] diff n1962</a>). However, this can only
happen while checking contracts when an invalid argument passed
to the body, which should results in the body either throwing
an exception or returning an incorrect result, will in turn fail
the contract assertion being checked by the caller of the body
and invoke the related contract failure handler as desired in
the first place. Furthermore, not disabling assertions while
checking preconditions (like <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a>
does) makes it possible to have infinite recursion while checking
preconditions. Therefore, this library by default disables assertion
checking also while checking preconditions (like Eiffel does),
but it also provides the <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039682816.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_PRECONDITIONS_DISABLE_NO_ASSERTION">BOOST_CONTRACT_PRECONDITIONS_DISABLE_NO_ASSERTION</a></code>
configuration macro so users can change this behaviour to match
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> if needed.
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f2" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f2" class="para"><sup class="para">[c] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> Older versions of
this library defined a data member in the user class that was
automatically used to disable checking of class invariants within
nested member function calls (similarly to Eiffel). This feature
was required by older revisions of <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a>
but it is no longer required by <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a>
(because it seems to be motivated purely by optimization reasons
while similar performances can be achieved by disabling invariants
for release builds). Furthermore, in multi-threaded programs
this feature would introduce a lock that synchronizes all member
functions calls for a given object. Therefore, this feature was
removed in the current revision of this library.
</p></div>
</td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>
<p>
The authors of this library consulted the following references that implement
contract programming for C++ (but usually for only a limited set of features,
or using preprocessing tools other than the C++ preprocessor and external
to the language itself) and for other languages (see <a class="link" href="bibliography.html" title="Bibliography">Bibliography</a>
for a complete list of all references consulted during the design and development
of this library):
</p>
<div class="informaltable"><table class="table">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<thead><tr>
<th>
<p>
Reference
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>
Language
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>
Notes
</p>
</th>
</tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Bright04b_anchor">[Bright04b]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Digital Mars C++
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
The Digital Mars C++ compiler extends C++ adding contract programming
language support (among many other features).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Maley99_anchor">[Maley99]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
C++
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This supports contract programming including subcontracting but
with limitations (e.g., programmers need to manually build an inheritance
tree using artificial template parameters), it does not use macros
but programmers are required to write by hand a significant amount
of boiler-plate code. (The authors have found this work very inspiring
when developing initial revisions of this library especially for
its attempt to support subcontracting.)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Lindrud04_anchor">[Lindrud04]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
C++
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This supports class invariants and old values but it does not support
subcontracting (contracts are specified within definitions instead
of declarations and assertions are not constant-correct).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Tandin04_anchor">[Tandin04]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
C++
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Interestingly, these contract macros automatically generate Doxygen
documentation <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f3" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f3"><sup class="footnote">[a]</sup></a> but old values, class invariants, and subcontracting
are not supported (plus contracts are specified within definitions
instead of declarations and assertions are not constant-correct).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Nana_anchor">[Nana]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
GCC C++
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This uses macros but it only works on GCC (and maybe Clang, but
it does not work on MSVC, etc.). It does not support subcontracting.
It requires extra care to program postconditions for functions
with multiple return statements. It seems that it might not check
class invariants when functions throw exceptions (unless the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">END</span></code> macro does that...). (In
addition, it provides tools for logging and integration with GDB.)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#C2_anchor">[C2]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
C++
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This uses an external preprocessing tool (the authors could no
longer find this project's code to evaluate it).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#iContract_anchor">[iContract]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Java
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This uses an external preprocessing tool.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Jcontract_anchor">[Jcontract]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Java
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This uses an external preprocessing tool.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#CodeContracts_anchor">[CodeContracts]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
.NET
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Microsoft contract programming for .NET programming languages.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#SpecSharp_anchor">[SpecSharp]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
C#
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This is a C# extension with contract programming language support.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Chrome_anchor">[Chrome]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Object Pascal
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This is the .NET version of Object Pascal and it has language support
for contract programming.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#SPARKAda_anchor">[SPARKAda]</a>
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Ada
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
This is an Ada-like programming language with support for contract
programming.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody class="footnotes"><tr><td colspan="3"><div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f3" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f3" class="para"><sup class="para">[a] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> Older versions of
this library also automatically generated Doxygen documentation
from contract definition macros. This functionality was abandoned
for a number of reasons: This library no longer uses macros to
program contracts; even before that, the implementation of this
library macros became too complex and the Doxygen preprocessor
was no longer able to expand them; the Doxygen documentation
was just a repeat of the contract code (so programmers could
directly look at contracts in the source code); Doxygen might
not necessarily be the documentation tool used by all C++ programmers.
</p></div></td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>
<p>
To the best knowledge of the authors, this the only library that fully supports
all contract programming features for C++ (without using preprocessing tools
external to the language itself). In general:
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
Implementing preconditions and postconditions in C++ is not difficult
(e.g., using some kind of RAII object).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Implementing postcondition old values is also not too difficult (usually
requiring programmers to copy old values into local variables), but it
is already somewhat more difficult to ensure such copies are not performed
when postconditions are disabled. <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f4" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f4"><sup class="footnote">[16]</sup></a>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Implementing class invariants is more involved (especially if done automatically,
without requiring programmers to manually invoke extra functions to check
the invariants). <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f5" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f5"><sup class="footnote">[17]</sup></a> In addition, all references reviewed by the authors seem
to not consider static and volatile functions not supporting static and
volatile invariants respectively.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Implementing subcontracting involves a significant amount of complexity
and it seems to not be properly supported by any C++ library other than
this one (especially when handling multiple inheritance, correctly copying
postcondition old values across all overridden contracts deep in the
inheritance tree, and correctly reporting the return value to the postconditions
of overridden virtual functions in base classes). <a href="#ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f6" class="footnote" name="boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f6"><sup class="footnote">[18]</sup></a>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="footnotes">
<br><hr style="width:100; text-align:left;margin-left: 0">
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f0" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f0" class="para"><sup class="para">[6] </sup></a>
The nomenclature of wide and narrow contracts has gained some popularity
in recent years in the C++ community (appearing in a number of more
recent proposals to add contract programming to the C++ standard, see
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html" title="Bibliography">Bibliography</a>). This
nomenclature is perfectly reasonable but it is not often used in this
document just because the authors usually prefer to explicitly say
"this operation has no preconditions..." or "this operation
has preconditions..." (this is just a matter of taste).
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f1" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f1" class="para"><sup class="para">[7] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> Contract assertions for
exception guarantees were first introduced by this library, they are
not part of <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> or other references
listed in the <a class="link" href="bibliography.html" title="Bibliography">Bibliography</a>
(even if exception safety guarantees have long been part of C++ STL
documentation).
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f2" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f2" class="para"><sup class="para">[8] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> Static and volatile class
invariants were first introduced by this library (simply to reflect
the fact that C++ supports also static and volatile public functions),
they are not part of <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a> or
other references listed in the <a class="link" href="bibliography.html" title="Bibliography">Bibliography</a>.
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f3" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.assertions.f3" class="para"><sup class="para">[9] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_CO_idm45028039741520.html" title="Macro BOOST_CONTRACT_DISABLE_THREADS">BOOST_CONTRACT_DISABLE_THREADS</a></code>
is named after <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">BOOST_DISABLE_THREADS</span></code>.
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.f0" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.benefits_and_costs.f0" class="para"><sup class="para">[10] </sup></a>
Of course, if contracts are ill-written then contract programming is
of little use. However, it is less likely to have a bug in both the
function body and the contract than in the function body alone. For
example, consider the validation of a result in postconditions. Validating
the return value might seem redundant, but in this case we actually
want that redundancy. When programmers write a function, there is a
certain probability that they make a mistake in implementing the function
body. When programmers specify the result of the function in the postconditions,
there is also a certain probability that they make a mistake in writing
the contract. However, the probability that programmers make a mistake
twice (in both the body <span class="emphasis"><em>and</em></span> the contract) is in
general lower than the probability that the mistake is made only once
(in either the body <span class="emphasis"><em>or</em></span> the contract).
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.destructor_calls.f0" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.destructor_calls.f0" class="para"><sup class="para">[11] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> Postconditions for
destructors are not part of <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a>
or other references listed in the <a class="link" href="bibliography.html" title="Bibliography">Bibliography</a>
(but with respect to <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#Meyer97_anchor">[Meyer97]</a>
it should be noted that Eiffel does not support static data members
and that might by why destructors do not have postconditions
in Eiffel). However, in principle there could be uses for destructor
postconditions so this library supports postconditions for destructors
(e.g., a class that counts object instances could use destructor
postconditions to assert that an instance counter stored in a
static data member is decreased by <code class="computeroutput"><span class="number">1</span></code>
because the object has been destructed).
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constant_correctness.f0" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.constant_correctness.f0" class="para"><sup class="para">[12] </sup></a>
Note that this is true when using C-style <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span></code>
as well.
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.specifications_vs__implementation.f0" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.specifications_vs__implementation.f0" class="para"><sup class="para">[13] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> Out of curiosity, if C++ <a href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_defects.html#45" target="_top">defect
45</a> had not been fixed, this library could have been implemented
to generate a compile-time error when precondition assertions use non-public
members more similarly to Eiffel's implementation (but still, not necessary
the best approach for C++).
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f0" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f0" class="para"><sup class="para">[14] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> If the evaluation of a contract
assertion throws an exception, the assertion cannot be checked to be true
so the only safe thing to assume is that the assertion failed (indeed the
contract assertion checking failed) and call the contract failure handler
in this case also.
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f1" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.on_contract_failures.f1" class="para"><sup class="para">[15] </sup></a>
<span class="bold"><strong>Rationale:</strong></span> This customizable failure handling
mechanism is similar to the one used by C++ <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">terminate</span></code>
and also to the one proposed in <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#N1962_anchor">[N1962]</a>.
</p></div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f4" class="footnote">
<p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f4" class="para"><sup class="para">[16] </sup></a>
For example, the following pseudocode attempts to emulate old values
in <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#P0380_anchor">[P0380]</a>:
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">scope_exit</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="comment">// RAII.</span>
<span class="keyword">template</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">typename</span> <span class="identifier">F</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
<span class="keyword">explicit</span> <span class="identifier">scope_exit</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">F</span> <span class="identifier">f</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">f_</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">f</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">{}</span>
<span class="special">~</span><span class="identifier">scope_exit</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="identifier">f_</span><span class="special">();</span> <span class="special">}</span>
<span class="identifier">scope_exit</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">scope_exit</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">&amp;)</span> <span class="special">=</span> <span class="keyword">delete</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="identifier">scope_exit</span><span class="special">&amp;</span> <span class="keyword">operator</span><span class="special">=(</span><span class="identifier">scope_exit</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">&amp;)</span> <span class="special">=</span> <span class="keyword">delete</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="keyword">private</span><span class="special">:</span>
<span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">function</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">void</span> <span class="special">()&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">f_</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="special">};</span>
<span class="keyword">void</span> <span class="identifier">fswap</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">file</span><span class="special">&amp;</span> <span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="identifier">file</span><span class="special">&amp;</span> <span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">expects</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">closed</span><span class="special">()]]</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">expects</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">closed</span><span class="special">()]]</span>
<span class="comment">// Cannot use [[ensures]] for postconditions so to emulate old values.</span>
<span class="special">{</span>
<span class="identifier">file</span> <span class="identifier">old_x</span> <span class="special">=</span> <span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">;</span> <span class="comment">// Emulate old values with local copies (not disabled).</span>
<span class="identifier">file</span> <span class="identifier">old_y</span> <span class="special">=</span> <span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="identifier">scope_exit</span> <span class="identifier">ensures</span><span class="special">([&amp;]</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="comment">// Check after local objects destroyed.</span>
<span class="keyword">if</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">uncaught_exceptions</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="special">==</span> <span class="number">0</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="comment">// Check only if no throw.</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">assert</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">closed</span><span class="special">()]]</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">assert</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">closed</span><span class="special">()]]</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">assert</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">x</span> <span class="special">==</span> <span class="identifier">old_y</span><span class="special">]]</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">assert</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">y</span> <span class="special">==</span> <span class="identifier">old_x</span><span class="special">]]</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
<span class="special">});</span>
<span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">open</span><span class="special">();</span>
<span class="identifier">scope_exit</span> <span class="identifier">close_x</span><span class="special">([&amp;]</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">close</span><span class="special">();</span> <span class="special">});</span>
<span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">open</span><span class="special">();</span>
<span class="identifier">scope_exit</span> <span class="identifier">close_y</span><span class="special">([&amp;]</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">close</span><span class="special">();</span> <span class="special">});</span>
<span class="identifier">file</span> <span class="identifier">z</span> <span class="special">=</span> <span class="identifier">file</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">temp</span><span class="special">();</span>
<span class="identifier">z</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">open</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="identifier">scope_exit</span> <span class="identifier">close_z</span><span class="special">([&amp;]</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="identifier">z</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">close</span><span class="special">();</span> <span class="special">});</span>
<span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">mv</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">z</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">mv</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">x</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="identifier">z</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">mv</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">y</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
</pre>
<p>
This requires boiler-plate code to make sure postconditions are correctly
checked only if the function did not throw an exception and in a <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">scope_exit</span></code> RAII object after all
other local objects have been destroyed (because some of these destructors
contribute to establishing the postconditions). Still, it never disables
old value copies (not even if postconditions are disabled in release
builds, this would require adding even more boiler-plate code using
<code class="computeroutput"><span class="preprocessor">#ifdef</span></code>, etc.).
</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f5" class="footnote">
<p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f5" class="para"><sup class="para">[17] </sup></a>
For example, the following pseudocode attempts to emulation of class
invariants in <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#P0380_anchor">[P0380]</a>:
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">template</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">typename</span> <span class="identifier">T</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
<span class="keyword">class</span> <span class="identifier">vector</span> <span class="special">{</span>
<span class="keyword">bool</span> <span class="identifier">invariant</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="comment">// Check invariants at...</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">assert</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">empty</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="special">==</span> <span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">size</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="special">==</span> <span class="number">0</span><span class="special">)]]</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">assert</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">size</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="special">&lt;=</span> <span class="identifier">capacity</span><span class="special">()]]</span>
<span class="keyword">return</span> <span class="keyword">true</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
<span class="keyword">public</span><span class="special">:</span>
<span class="identifier">vector</span><span class="special">()</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">ensures</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">invariant</span><span class="special">()]]</span> <span class="comment">// ...constructor exit (only if no throw).</span>
<span class="special">{</span> <span class="special">...</span> <span class="special">}</span>
<span class="special">~</span><span class="identifier">vector</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="keyword">noexcept</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">expects</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">invariant</span><span class="special">()]]</span> <span class="comment">// ...destructor entry.</span>
<span class="special">{</span> <span class="special">...</span> <span class="special">}</span>
<span class="keyword">void</span> <span class="identifier">push_back</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">T</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">&amp;</span> <span class="identifier">value</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">expects</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">invariant</span><span class="special">()]]</span> <span class="comment">// ...public function entry.</span>
<span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">ensures</span><span class="special">:</span> <span class="identifier">invariant</span><span class="special">()]]</span> <span class="comment">// ...public function exit (if no throw).</span>
<span class="keyword">try</span> <span class="special">{</span>
<span class="special">...</span> <span class="comment">// Function body.</span>
<span class="special">}</span> <span class="keyword">catch</span><span class="special">(...)</span> <span class="special">{</span>
<span class="identifier">invariant</span><span class="special">();</span> <span class="comment">// ...public function exit (if throw).</span>
<span class="keyword">throw</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
<span class="special">...</span>
<span class="special">};</span>
</pre>
<p>
This requires boiler-plate code to manually invoke the function that
checks the invariants (note that invariants are checked at public function
exit regardless of exceptions being thrown while postconditions are
not). In case the destructor can throw (e.g., it is declared <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">noexcept</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">false</span><span class="special">)</span></code>),
the destructor also requires a <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">try</span><span class="special">-</span><span class="keyword">catch</span></code>
statement similar to the one programmed for <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">push_back</span></code>
to check class invariants at destructor exit when it throws exceptions.
Still, an outstanding issue remains to avoid infinite recursion if
also <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">empty</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">size</span></code> are public functions programmed
to check class invariants (because <a class="link" href="bibliography.html#P0380_anchor">[P0380]</a>
does not automatically disable assertions while checking other assertions).
</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn.boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f6" class="footnote"><p><a href="#boost_contract.contract_programming_overview.feature_summary.f6" class="para"><sup class="para">[18] </sup></a>
For example, it is not really possible to sketch pseudocode based on
<a class="link" href="bibliography.html#P0380_anchor">[P0380]</a> that emulates subcontracting
in the general case.
</p></div>
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Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0 (see accompanying
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