boost library interdepence

From: Gary Powell (Gary.Powell_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-05-03 11:39:32

Question: Should a library in the vault or on the boost web page in 
general require other boost libraries?

Other than reusing boost/config.hpp, as a library writer, should I 
make every effort to use all of the other boost libraries? Or should 
every library be stand-a-lone, with no other boost files being 
necessary.

On one hand, reuse is good. On the other hand tight linking is bad. A 
I hate it when I download one library only to find I need eight more. 
So if we do interlink libraries, it should be obvious to a user 
downloading which other libraries we are dependent on.

Also, since the library I'm working on is available on other sites, 
should there be two copies, one which uses the boost libraries, and 
one which doesn't? And what about libraries that are in the vault but 
not fully accepted? Should we reuse those libraries on the hope that 
they will be accepted? And of course once we do that, accepting one 
library could cause a chain of acceptence's which may or may not be a 
good idea.

This is an easy question for simple source that is one file, like 
operators.hpp, and much more of an issue for VTL which has 90+ files.

Comments?

  -Gary-

gary.powell_at_[hidden]