In the "lout" directory, there are some common base functionality for C++. Most is described as doxygen comments, this text gives an overview.

Common Base Class

Many classes are derived from lout::object::Object, which defines some general methods. See there for more information.

For the case, that you need primitive C++ types, there are some wrappers:

C++ Type	Wrapper Class
void*	lout::object::Pointer
specific pointer	lout::object::TypedPointer (template class)
int	lout::object::Integer
const char*	lout::object::ConstString
char*	lout::object::String

Containers

In the namespace lout::container, several container classes are defined, which all deal with instances of lout::object::Object.

Untyped Containers

In lout::container::untyped, there are the following containers:

lout::container::untyped::Vector, a dynamically increases array,
lout::container::untyped::List, a linked list,
lout::container::untyped::HashTable, a hash table, and
lout::container::untyped::Stack, a stack.

All provide specific methods, but since they have a common base class, lout::container::untyped::Collection, they all provide iterators, by the method lout::container::untyped::Collection::iterator.

Typed Containers

lout::container::typed provides wrappers for the container classes defined in lout::container::untyped, which are more type safe, by using C++ templates.

Signals

For how to connect objects at run-time (to reduce dependencies), take a look at the lout::signal namespace.

There is also a base class lout::signal::ObservedObject, which implements signals for deletion.

Debugging

In debug.hh, there are some some useful macros for debugging messages, see the file for mor informations.

Identifying Classes at Runtime

If the class of an object must be identified at runtime, lout::identity::IdentifiableObject should be used as the base class, see there for more details.

Miscellaneous

The lout::misc namespace provides several miscellaneous stuff:

In some contexts, it is necessary to compare objects (less/greater), for this, also lout::misc::Comparable must be implemented. For example., lout::container::untyped::Vector::sort and lout::container::typed::Vector::sort cast the elements to lout::misc::Comparable. This can be mixed with lout::object::Object.
lout::misc::SimpleVector, a simple, template based vector class (not depending on lout::object::Object) (a variant for handling a special case in an efficient way is lout::misc::NotSoSimpleVector),
lout::misc::StringBuffer, class for fast concatenation of a large number of strings,
lout::misc::BitSet implements a bitset.
useful (template) functions (lout::misc::min, lout::misc::max), and
some functions useful for runtime checks (lout::misc::assert, lout::misc::assertNotReached).