question regarding potential boost namespace collisions

From: rameysb (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-02-23 18:40:11

I am currently putting the finishing touches on a library I hope to 
submit to boost.org.

I studying the other boost libraries it seems that all the library 
user callable funcations are added to the namepace boost while 
private functions are added to namespace boost::detail

How does one know that the names he chooses don't collide with any 
others used in the library?  Must one check the whole library?  If 
one wants to use a common name such as "save" are subsquent library 
builders bared from using it  on penalty of creating a collision?

Suppose I am creating a library for object serialization 
called "serialize"  Would it not be convenient to use

namespace serialize for public interfaces and
namespace serialize::detail for private ones.

users would then do one of the following:

    boost::serialize::save(....

or

using namespace boost::serialize;

    save(...

Am I missing something obvious here?  Has this question come up
before and be resolved to the current system - if so what is
the rational.

Robert Ramey