add christian's 2024 q2 update

_posts/2024-07-10-ChristiansQ2Update.md

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+---
+layout: post
+nav-class: dark
+categories: christian
+title: Christian's Q2 2024 Update
+author-id: christian
+author-name: Christian Mazakas
+---
+
+# Boost.Http.Proto
+
+This last quarter I worked primarily in the http-proto library, this time extending
+serialization to include chunking and zlib compression routines: deflate and gzip.
+
+This is the first time I've ever used zlib so it was definitely a learning experience
+but it's given me valuable insights into how other libraries of this nature work.
+
+More importantly was reifying the application of such dynamic code with the existing
+code which supports many possible permutations.
+
+Serialization in http-proto enables users to consume output in myriad different ways
+and the output itself can be framed and transformed as well. This forms a product
+space, in all actuality, so it was quite a feat to unify the core logic. The secret
+was operating in terms of distinct input and output buffer spaces, which could
+sometimes alias.
+
+# Boost.Compat
+
+I also dedicated some time into working on Boost's Compat module, which is home
+to several different kinds of polyfills of C++ constructs introduced in later
+C++ standards.
+
+This time I worked on `function_ref` and as far as I'm aware, I'm the first
+implementor of such a facility. The class seems very simple on the surface. Just
+a simple non-owning type-erased view of a Callable object but the devil is always
+in the details.
+
+`const` and `noexcept` each change the actual type of the function signature used
+so again, I had to test another proudct space. The testing burden for many of these
+components is quite high and while there are some, it'll be interesting to see if
+anyone actually uses this facility and how well it fares.
+
+Interestingly, `function_ref` actually has a form of currying with regards to member
+access and objects. This doesn't seem well-known and actually came as a surprise to
+me.
+
+---
+
+There's a lot more to look forward to later in the year and I'll be excited to
+write the next update.
+
+- Christian