Re: [boost] Review Request: regular expressions

From: Beman Dawes (beman_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-08-05 06:48:19

We need to act on John's review request for regular expressions.

There is concern over configuration:

Jens> Before we start the formal review, I would like to focus
Jens> boost's attention to the configuration scripts enclosed with
Jens> regex.zip: regex.zip does not use "boost/config.hpp", but has
Jens> an "autoconf"-based configuration system with a few pre-built
Jens> configurations (egcs, MSVC, BCC).<

John> The essential problem here is that regex++ has historically had
John> a life outside of boost (and will probably continue to do so),
John> it wasn't written for boost, but is has been "boostified" to some
John> extent.  I am aware that there are still areas of overlap between
John> regex++ and existing boost headers - so far I have replaced regex++ 
John> facilities wherever I happened to notice there was a one to one
John> correspondence with boost, probably I have missed a
John> few, and I'm sure that there is more that can be done.
John> I guess we need to define a policy here, as this is the first time
John> that a someone has submitted a large library, not specifically
John> "written for" boost.

In looking at the code, John has already done considerable work to 
"boostify" regex, but conversion to using boost/config.hpp would be quite a 
bit of further work.  It seems unfair to ask him or others to do still more 
work without knowing whether or not regex will become a part of boost.

So I suggest a multi-step process:

*  Do the formal review, acknowledging the configuration issue, but 
focusing on the big-picture question of "do we want this library in boost?"

*  Assuming the library is accepted, ask the author to make the usual 
adjustments that come out of the review process, and then go ahead and post 
the library on the web site.  Note the outstanding configuration issue in 
the docs.

*  Work toward solving the configuration issue in a later release.  Knowing 
that the library is a regular (pun intended) part of boost, I (and probably 
others) will volunteer to help John make the transition.

--Beman