Re: [Boost-users] Intel TBB & BOOST

From: Hendrik Belitz (hbelitz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-06-17 02:38:58

Hi,

> Well, it would be one license that we would have to deal with. I feel
BOOST license has been more openly 
> accepted in the corporate world. At my place of work, there is fear of
using anything GPL even with the 
> runtime exception. Last but not the least, since BOOST and TBB are heavily
template based, having them under 
> the same umbrella might influence common interfaces. Since BOOST has the
Threads package, IMHO, TBB might 
> also fit in. I am mainly focusing on the packaging and standardization of
interfaces, documentation and 
> availability under one roof.

I think the limited license acceptability in corporate development
departments is an important point (I personally don't have such an attitude,
but I'm also coping with all that OSS licensing issues for over 12 years
now. But I do know that there is some kind of heavy preoccupation against
using any project containing the three letters of nastiness somewhere in
there license or documentation.). I only don't see how to change this for
TBB. Asking all developers (including Intel as the original contributor) for
their permission seems somewhat unpromising to me.

Regarding the second point, being heavily template-based doesn't sound like
a good common denominator for unifying C++ libraries to me. Many modern
libraries rely mostly on templates (e.g. Blitz++, VXL, ITK, TBB,...), but
most of them differ significantly in architecture and design. The good point
is that most Boost libraries and the TBB are similar in design to the
standard C++ library, but this alone does not make them inherently
compatible and fit in together in a homogeneous way. Plus, changing an
well-formed and established API interface like that of the TBB (to something
that might be, from my experience with certain boost libraries, a lot more
cryptical) sounds like a really bad idea to me.

On the other hand, I totally agree with you that it would be nice to have a
standartized library format and a central source for all these libraries,
most preferably the way Boost provides this nowadays. :)

Regards,
 Hendrik

--
Hendrik Belitz, Dipl.-Inform.
 API-Development
ISD Software und Systeme GmbH
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Germany
Fon: +49 (0)231/97 93-0
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Mail: hbelitz_at_[hidden]
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