Begin to implement IfcConvert enhancements discussed in #20. Remove C++-specific getters and setters and use the same set() and get() functions in in both C++ and Python. Enhance output of IfcConvert, especially in error situations (spamming a hundred lines of options always hides the original error message), utilize Boost's foreach macro to provide cleaner iteration code.

src/ifcparse/IfcUtil.cpp

@@ -17,12 +17,14 @@
  *                                                                              *
  ********************************************************************************/
 
+#include "IfcUtil.h"
+#include "../ifcparse/IfcException.h"
+
+#include <boost/algorithm/string/replace.hpp>
+
 #include <iostream>
 #include <algorithm>
 
-#include "../ifcparse/IfcException.h"
-
-#include "IfcUtil.h"
 
 void IfcEntityList::push(IfcUtil::IfcBaseClass* l) {
 	if (l) {
@@ -143,4 +145,14 @@ bool IfcUtil::valid_binary_string(const std::string& s) {
 		if (*it != '0' && *it != '1') return false;
 	}
 	return true;
-}
+}
+
+boost::regex IfcUtil::wildcard_string_to_regex(std::string str)
+{
+    std::string special_chars = "\\^.$|()[]*+";
+    foreach(char c, special_chars) {
+        std::string char_str(1, c);
+        boost::replace_all(str, char_str, "\\"+ char_str);
+    }
+    return boost::regex(str);
+}

src/ifcparse/IfcUtil.h

@@ -26,15 +26,20 @@
 #include <sstream>
 #include <algorithm>
 
-#include <boost/shared_ptr.hpp>
-#include <boost/dynamic_bitset.hpp>
-
 #ifdef USE_IFC4
 #include "../ifcparse/Ifc4enum.h"
 #else
 #include "../ifcparse/Ifc2x3enum.h"
 #endif
 
+#include <boost/shared_ptr.hpp>
+#include <boost/dynamic_bitset.hpp>
+#include <boost/regex.hpp>
+#include <boost/foreach.hpp>
+
+#define foreach BOOST_FOREACH
+#define rforeach BOOST_REVERSE_FOREACH
+
 class Argument;
 class IfcEntityList;
 class IfcEntityListList;
@@ -110,6 +115,8 @@ namespace IfcUtil {
 	};
 
 	bool valid_binary_string(const std::string& s);
+
+    boost::regex wildcard_string_to_regex(std::string str);
 }
 
 template <class T>