[boost] Re: Libraries requested or under construction

From: Reid Sweatman (reids_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-07-22 17:55:22

> * Libraries requested.  This would let prospective contributors know
> what users are looking for.  It would be nice if visitors could fill
> out a request right on the web page, but I will have to figure out if
> the host server supports that. 

If it can handle a little CGI, then a simple HTML form with a text control
would do the trick.

> * Libraries under construction. Who is working on what. This would
> serve to prevent duplication of effort, and allow members to offer
> help to the person doing the work.

I'd like that.  So far it's turned out that everything I had in mind to
submit is something Dietmar was already doing.  Actually, I was referred to
the list when I asked elsewhere for auto_ptr's with different behaviors.
Don't know who wrote the smart_ptr stuff, but that' also something I was on
the verge of implementing when I discovered this site.

One project I did have in mind that I haven't done yet is a generic directed
graph manager, with specializations for things like FSM's, Markov FSM's,
sparse terrain search, and so on.  After looking over Dietmar's resume, it
looks like he's somewhat more qualified than I to do that stuff, but we're
approaching it from different sides; he's very network-oriented, while I'm
looking at various game applications, as in rendering caches, AI's, terrain
pathing, and so on.  I think having people from different disciplines is
useful, because it helps in coming up with better, broader generalizations.
And generic is what this is all about.

Dunno.  Is anyone interested in such a template?  I'd also like to see (or
do) generic tree templates (although again, if you look through Dietmar's
heap stuff, he's got some good tree implementations in there.  Maybe it
would be a good thing to have the tree stuff separately templated, and
Dietmar's heaps rigged to take a tree type as an argument?  Again, dunno.
I've discussed some of this off-list with Dietmar, but not everything I just
mentioned, especially the part about rewriting his templates <g>.  Nothing
like asking another programmer to rewrite something he's happy with just to
make you happy <g>.

Anyway, I support your notion of a requested/in progress page for the site.
That might also be a good place to put links to the current beta code.
Hell, if anyone cared to make the page nice and juicy, you could also
provide a bug reporting mechanism that would archive the reports and send
them on to all the people listed as involved in a particular project.
Again, some simple CGI.   Hmmmn...is there an eBoost CGI list we could
borrow talent from? <g>.