Re: [boost] Header file dependencies

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-09-22 22:38:30

From: "Edward Diener" <eddielee_at_[hidden]>

> I started a thread about a month ago mentioning that the header file
> dependencies were out of date. Has there been any work to bring them up
to
> date ?

I doubt it. Last I remember we had a discussion of some problems without
any good resolution.

> I think a good other way to specify dependencies is to make a tree of
what
> general implementations are dependent on other general implementations,
and
> then list all of the header files for a given implementation. This would
> allow someone distributing a particular implementation with their code,
> let's take boost::function as an example, to also distribute all the
header
> files for the implementations which boost::function uses ( and of course
> recursively for any of those other implementations ), and would give
> distributors a fighting chance of successfully distributing something
less
> than the entire Boost header files. I realize that config and its header
> files must be distributed with everything, but I don't think it should be
> necessary to have to ditsribute all of the headers each time a small
number
> of implementations are used.
>
> An example of such a useful tree format, would be:
>
> boost::function
>   boost::mem_fn
>   boost::xxx
>   etc.
>     boost::function header file
>     etc.
>
> boost::mem_fn
>   boost::yyy
>   etc.
>     boost::mem_fn header file
>     etc.
>
> etc.
>
> Such a tree would have the minimum amount of redundancy, but by following
> through starting at a particular implementation, one could know what
header
> files to distribute, even if one distributed a few extra header files for
a
> particular implementation which might not be needed by actual usage. I
> consider this type of dependency tree easier for the purposes of
> distribution than an accurate header-by-header tree, and it should
certainly
> be easier to create for users of Boost implementations.

Sure. I think some experimentation with different approaches will be needed
before we find the most useful format.

Suggestion: if you want to see results in this area, why don't you try some
experiments with different styles and post them for discussion? I don't
think we're going to end up with anything worthwhile until someone who
really cares about this decides to take responsibility for it.

-----------------------------------------------------------
           David Abrahams * Boost Consulting
dave_at_[hidden] * http://www.boost-consulting.com