Re: A Follow Up to My Original Note Re The Future of Boost

From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-08-02 07:01:52

On 01/08/2024 23:42, Robert Ramey via Boost wrote:

> Regardless, I see the purpose and goals of Boost significantly changing 
> or Boost dying.  Consider this my modest tribute to a life well lived.

The way I'd look at it Robert is life is change, and something changing 
significantly means it ain't dead yet.

I got some negative comments for saying this last time, but I'll say it 
again - the proportion of the active users here who personally knew the 
original set of active users has become a minority. That is a sign of 
vitality - we are being replaced. I, like you, have had considerable 
interactions with both sets over the years. Both sets have positives, 
but both have negatives.

Quite a few appear to be yearning for a third option which isn't either 
of the current two on the menu before us. Unfortunately, politics rarely 
presents ideal options. You get two options most people don't much like, 
and the choices are A, or B, or vote for neither.

The C++ Alliance choice is very much a put your eggs in one basket in 
exchange for proactive funding of dev work until the money runs out. The 
Boost Foundation choice is to continue the benign and sometimes not so 
benign neglect of dev work and the developers themselves.

So long as the source code remains Boost licensed, many will feel it 
doesn't matter which path is chosen. A fork and a new website could 
always be done if whomever owns the supporting IP got into trouble. So I 
suspect most will choose to sit on the fence and see how things play out.

The Alliance choice thanks to the direct funding of devs will always 
have far more energy and bodies to apply to problems. They will choose 
the problems which match their choice of direction however. There will 
be an actual direction now for better or for worse.

I honestly don't know which is better. One has strength and vitality but 
it's brittle, the other is continue to meander aimlessly. I suspect the 
former has less chance of "Boost dying" in the short term, but who knows 
longer term.

I will say this: the future is determined by the young and energetic, 
and that's ain't us no more. So I guess whatever they think is best.

Niall