For the past week or so, I’ve been trying to figure out how to install boost.  I’ve never installed a library before, so I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.  Trying to build bjam kept giving me an “incorrect syntax” error, so I downloaded the prebuilt executable.  The prebuilt executable keeps terminating irregularly, probably because I don’t know what syntax I’m supposed to use.

Part of the problem is, because I have no clue what I’m doing, I don’t even know what I need to do, or what is supposed to happen.  I assumed that, upon installation, I would be able to simply type #include <date_time> and using namespace boost, or something similar (I don’t even know that much) to include the libraries I need.  But since I don’t even know what a PATH is, or how to change it, or what it should look like if it’s already been changed or… well, anything… lets just say that the Getting Started instructions aren’t detailed enough for me to make heads or tails of what’s supposed to be going on.

Basically, I have Visual Studio .Net 2003, and I’m running on a Network that’s very strictly controlled.  If there’s anything that I need to change in the Visual Studio directory (or subdirectories), I’ll need to know that so I can get Admin rights to change it.  I know hold-my-hand walkthroughs aren’t exactly common, but that’s completely what I need at this point, because it’s obvious that my understanding of the process is not up to the level that the instructions were written.  Any help that I can get would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike Wellman