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Document number: N3851

Date: 2014-01-17

Multidimensional bounds, index and array_view

by Łukasz Mendakiewicz, Herb Sutter

Excerpt:

Programs performing computations on multidimensional data are relatively common (e.g. operations on dense matrices or image processing) yet there is no standardized approach in C++ to express the concept of dimensionality. This document aims to fill this gap in the Standard C++ Library by proposing the following closely related types:

• bounds and index as means of defining and addressing multidimensional discrete spaces.
• array_view and strided_array_view as multidimensional views on contiguous or strided memory ranges, respectively.
• bounds_iterator providing interoperability with iterator-based algorithms.

While the proposal builds on Microsoft experience of implementing and using similar extent, index and array_view types in their data parallel programming model -- C++ AMP [1] -- we believe that these concepts will also benefit a wider C++ community.