Re: [boost] Benefit/Complexity ratio in libraries [was MPLcontainers and algorithms]

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-08-19 16:07:58

At 03:51 PM 8/19/2002, David Abrahams wrote:

 >Is there
 >a way to encourage competition that brings benefits, yet preserves our
 >collaborative spirit? Interesting question...

In some sense the preliminary discussions we often hold include a 
competition between ideas, and that clearly has great benefit.  But when we 
talk about whole libraries it is harder to see how to do that beneficially.

It would be one thing if competing libraries already existed, and all Boost 
had to do was decide which ones we preferred.  Or maybe put both up on the 
web and  track use patterns over a long period of time.

But most Boost libraries are custom designed, one-off, efforts. My feeling 
has always been that if we asked two developers to produce libraries with 
the understanding that one would be thrown away, we wouldn't interest 
quality developers.

Yes, it really will be interesting to see if anyone comes up with "a way to 
encourage competition that brings benefits, yet preserves our collaborative 
spirit."

--Beman