Caramel: A Concept Representation System for Generic Programming

This paper introduces Caramel, a concept representation markup language system for generic programming in C++. Concepts, as abstract interface descriptions for templates, have a central role in generic programming. However, there is no language support for them in C++ and as a result they are only represented implicitly (in the form of documentation) and have no power to enforce interface adherence. The Caramel system provides a framework for explicit representation of concepts (in XML) and subsequent integration of the concept descriptions into a generic library. Using the XML concept description (as defined by the Caramel DTD), tools in the Caramel system automatically generate concept checking classes (compile time assertions) for interface adherence as well as archetypes (concept exemplars) that can be used for verification of algorithm implementations. Documentation associated with the concept is also generated in a number of popular formats, including HTML and LTEX. Since the concept checking classes, archetypes, and documentation are all generated from a single source (the XML concept description), consistency between them is assured.