    
        
        
        
    
List-Update Containers
    This section describes policies for list updates. It is organized as follows:
    
 The #generalGeneral Terms  Subsection describes general
        terms.
    
    
 The #imp_pb_assocImplementation in pb_assoc         Subsection describes the implementation of these concepts in 
pb_assoc.
    
General Terms 
    Associative containers use some attributes of the keys of which they store: tree-based
containers use the ability to compare keys; hash-based containers use the ability to map
keys into numbers.
        In the (rare) case where keys can only be checked for equivalence, these
types of containers cannot be used. In such a case, storing the entries in a list is a reasonable solution.
Clearly, the order of the elements within the list affects performance; ideally, frequently accessed elements
should be at the front of the list.
    Many remarkable (online competitive
[
references.html#motwani95randommotwani95random ])
algorithms exist for reordering lists to reflect access prediction
[
references.html#andrew04mtfandrew04mtf ]. Some of these algorithms require storing
metadata with each key, while others do not. Some of these algorithms require only the ability to
move an element to the front of the list, while others require the ability to interchange an element and
its predecessor.
    For example, Figure
#lu-A
The counter algorithm
shows the counter algorithm. Each node contains both a key and a count metadata (shown in bold).
When an element is accessed (
e.g. 6)
its count is incremented, as shown in
Figure
#luThe counter algorithm
-B.
If the count reaches some predetermined value, say 10, as shown in
Figure
#luThe counter algorithm
-C,
the count is set to 0
and the node is moved to the front of the list,  as in
Figure
#luThe counter algorithm
-D.
The counter algorithm.
Implementation in pb_assoc 
    The 
pb_assoc library allows instantiating lists with policies
implementing any algorithm moving nodes to the front of the list (policies implementing
algorithms interchanging nodes are currently unsupported).
    Associative containers based on lists are parameterized by a 
Update_Policy parameter.
This parameter defines the type of metadata each node contains, how to create the metadata, and how to
decide, using this metadata, whether to move a node to the front of the list.
    A list-based associative container object derives (publicly) from its update policy.
    An instantiation of 
Update_Policy must define internally update_metadata as the metadata
it requires. Internally, each node of the list contains, besides the usual key and data, an instance
of 
typename Update_Policy::update_metadata.
    An instantiation of 
Update_Policy must define internally two operators:
update_metadata
  
operator()
  ();
bool  
operator()
  (update_metadata &);
    The first is called by the container object, when creating a new node, to create the node's metadata. The
second is called by the container object, when a node is accessed (
e.g., when a find operation's key
is equivalent to the key of the node), to determine whether to move the node to the front of the list.
    Additionally, the library contains implementations of the move-to-front and counter policies. These
are described in
interface.html#policy_classesPolicy Classes .
