[boost] Re: Does anyone care about Boost?

From: Moore, Paul (Paul.Moore_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-09-27 03:15:37

From: tom.lighthouse_at_[hidden] [mailto:tom.lighthouse_at_[hidden]]
> Now is the time to do the impossible: ask a dumb question:
> What is Boost?

My view, as a relative newcomer, is that boost is effectively an extension
of the C++ standard library, to cover those things that people think
should/could have been in the standard library. It's all those wheels people
wish they didn't have to reinvent every time :-)

My favourite example is the smart pointers (auto-pointers for both scalars
and arrays, refcounted pointers). These are things I want *often*, but hate
having to spend the time re-implementing for each new project. The recently
discussed regular expression library is another example.

In many ways, boost is "just another" set of libraries. But it has as one of
its specific aims to be as complete/portable/reliable/whatever as the
standard libraries, which gives it the edge...

Hope this helps,
Paul.