Re: [boost] Draft Tutorial / Guidelines for Authors of Boost Libraries Containing Separate Source

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-11-06 20:49:39

At 05:01 PM 11/6/2003, Rob Stewart wrote:
 >From: Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_[hidden]>
 >> At 08:07 AM 11/4/2003, John Maddock wrote:
 >>
 >>  >I've put together a set of draft guidelines come tutorial for 
libraries
 >>  >that have separate source code ...
 >>
 >> * There are several sections:
 >>
 >>    * Supporting Windows DLL's
 >>    * Importing/exporting dependencies
 >>    * Fixing the ABI of the Compiled Library
 >>    * Enabling Automatic Library Selection and Linking
 >>
 >> IIUC, "Fixing the ABI of the Compiled Library" applies to more 
libraries
 >> than just those compiled separately. Thus it might be better as the 
first
 >
 >> section, where header-only library developers can access it easily.
 >
 >If header-only developers should read this document, then it is
 >misnamed and it should clearly indicate what applies to
 >header-only and "separate source" libraries.

If I understand John correctly, the BOOST_HAS_ABI_HEADERS issues apply to 
header-only libraries if those libraries are used by separate-source 
libraries, but not otherwise:

 >Counter Argument #2:
 >
 >Prefix/suffix headers have a tendency to "spread" to other boost 
libraries
 >-
 >for example if boost::shared_ptr<> forms part of your class's ABI, then
 >including prefix/suffix headers in your code will be of no use unless
 >shared_ptr.hpp also uses them.  Authors of header-only boost libraries 
may
 >not be so keen on this solution - with some justification - since they
 >don't face the same problem.

So we have to make a decision as to how to deal with this for header-only 
libraries. I personally don't have a problem with it, since it adds only 
six lines of code per header.

--Beman