Re: Build Boost Back Better

From: William Linkmeyer (wlink10_at_[hidden])
Date: 2022-04-04 21:04:21

If boost were able to take this concept:

https://ossia.io/posts/minimum-viable/

And drive it further, we may be able to place roots in graphics for later expansion. I anticipate further community involvement after the above idea is refined. It’s a great launch-point into a system-agnostic [ui/wm/graphics] framework. 

Google’s flutter and filament come to mind as the kinds of projects that would be possible for Boost after this — a minimum viable declarative graphics library (which I’ll call “DGL” for brevity) — is in place. 

The potential applications are quite broad. Building on Beast, DGL could also be served to clients on the web and declare user interfaces users there.

WL

> On Apr 4, 2022, at 4:28 PM, Richard Hodges via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 at 21:11, William Linkmeyer via Boost <
> boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
>> I’m more than happy to rewrite parts of the Boost website with, perhaps,
>> bootstrap and mustaches.
>> 
>> It would be fitting, I think, to use boost-based projects for the
>> website’s back-end  I’m currently working on a boost::beast-based server.
>> It hosts my website, but that’s not exactly mass-tested.
>> 
>> I am curious in re. the thought that Boost is on a decline. If the point
>> of comparison is high-impact library creation and adoption, then yes, maybe
>> boost is on a decline. But, aren’t there only so many fundamental libraries
>> to create — and doesn’t boost cover virtually all of those fundamental
>> libraries?
>> 
>> There might be room to pivot in the direction of more user-facing
>> utilities. Things like graphics clients, window managers, or audio I/O come
>> to mind.
> 
> 
> I favour this. Boost is great for supplying nuts and bolts, but it's light
> on turnkey application frameworks.
> 
> 
>> 
>> 
>> There may also be room to pivot in the opposite direction: embedded
>> utilities. Things such as GPIO, SPI, and I2C come to mind as easy
>> candidates for such a library. The state of that landscape is a bit
>> scattered right now. On one hand, the Linux kernel gives the programmer
>> robust support for such connections — but because all of the support is
>> file-based, programmers generally pick a library with less overhead. That
>> library used to be wiringpi, which has since gone dark.
>> 
>> Developers may find such projects attractive. If my experience is any
>> indication of how other programmers think, I’ll put it out there: the
>> existing boost libraries are either too well-written (beast), too large, or
>> too domain-specific (math libraries) for me to contribute anything of
>> substance.
>> 
>> WL
>> 
>>> On Apr 4, 2022, at 1:43 PM, Vinnie Falco via Boost <
>> boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Well, now that I have everyone's attention just before the release,
>>> I'd like to draw attention to the elephant in the room. That is, the
>>> declining level of activity on the Boost mailing lists and the
>>> declining level of participation in the Boost formal review process.
>>> Both in terms of the number of reviewers, and in terms of the
>>> difficulty in finding a review manager.
>>> 
>>> Clearly, a website update is necessary and along with it some type of
>>> campaign to highlight once again the important role that Boost serves
>>> in the C++ community for both professionals and amateurs alike. But
>>> what more can we do?
>>> 
>>> This came up before but it is worth mentioning again; in addition to a
>>> website update to make boost.org modern and relevant, how do we feel
>>> about a transition to forum-based discussion instead of the mailing
>>> list? I realize this will ruffle some feathers but surely the
>>> alternative, a descent into irrelevance due to steady declining
>>> activity is worse?
>>> 
>>> Discuss.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Regards,
>>> Vinnie
>>> 
>>> Follow me on GitHub: https://github.com/vinniefalco
>>> 
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