Re: [boost] Boost libraries after C++0x acceptance

From: Jeff F (TriumphSprint2000_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-10-10 09:01:31

"Steve Hutton" <shutton_at_[hidden]> wrote in message 
news:egf8f3$59i$1_at_sea.gmane.org...
> On 2006-10-09, Robert Ramey <ramey_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
>> I would make one small change to the above statement - removing the
>> word "standard" so tha tit reads
>>
>> The deciding factor often seems to be the availability of a [standard] 
>> lib
>> (Java, .Net).
>>
>> I see very successful libraries - MFC - totally non portable that are
>> successful because they provide the right toolkit for the job.  The
>> fact that they are not standard hasn't been relevant.
>
> Yes, the majority of the market place doesn't care about the difference
> between standard and de-facto standard.  But achieving true de-facto
> standard status means your library must ship with the development
> environments used by the majority of users.  In practice the only way
> to achieve de-facto standard level market penetration is to in fact
> to become standardized [*]
>
> Just look a the level of STL adoption before it was *both* standardized
> and shipped by Microsoft.

This begs the question of how can we get compiler suppliers to include "a 
copy" of boost with their compilers? That would certainly remove the single 
largest barrier to adoption, would it not? It certainly would in the company 
that I just joined.

Are there any on this list that work for MS that would be able to comment on 
this possibility? Herb Sutter? What about those actively involved in gcc 
development/support, what would it take to make this happen? What other 
compiler mfr's are out there?

Then we'd need to define just what is "a copy" of boost. Would it be a 
particular release? Some accomodation of compiler release schedules and 
processes would be required no doubt.

Any comments?

Jeff Flinn