RE: [boost] Re: Directory structure

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-12-11 08:47:46

> At 07:49 AM 12/11/2000 -0500, John Maddock wrote:
>
>  >... I don't like the idea of having all the cpp files in one directory -

I agree with this also.  However all the .cpp files should be under
boost_top/src/libname.

>  >there is no guarentee that all of them will build (not all libraries are
>  >supported on all platforms).  Nor do I think there should be a single
>  >"boost" library build, although I use large parts of boost, I have never

This I disagree with.  As I described in my earlier post, this is
inconsistent with current boost header policy.  If you don't want a build
which can put all of boost in a single library then we should also move the
headers into their own library specific includes.

>  >used all of it in one project, users should not pay for what they don't
>  >use, and would prefer to see the boost libraries continue to build as
>  >separate libraries.  For me that means that putting source in
>  ><boost>/libs/libname/src is fine, as long as it is properly documented.

Agreed.  I would extend this with a configuration option which allows for
easy subsetting of the library to only the desired libs.

Beman Dawes wrote:
> In addition to his points, consider that boost will almost certainly grow
> far beyond the current size and scope.  It will be unmanageable
> if we just
> toss all source files into a single source directory.

Absolutely.  And if we make everyone build and link every single library one
at a time they will throw up their hands in frustration.  I only link one
library to get I/O streams and STL from the standard library.  Of course you
might think this is a bad thing :)

> I can't even count the number of times I've considered using a
> component of
> some library, only to reject it because I had to buy into the whole
> unbounded library just to get the one component.  Boost has to figure out
> how to avoid that fate.  We don't know the whole answer yet, but keeping
> separate library directories seems likely to be part of the solution.

Agreed.  See the suggestion in my earlier post.

Jeff