RE: [boost] impl(ementations) - keeping it simple

From: Hartmut Kaiser (hartmutkaiser_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-01-26 00:52:48

John Torjo wrote:

> Again, I'm pretty frustrated that some libraries have source 
> files that 
> need to be compiled separately (using bjam).
> 
> I was thinking that we could have a directory '/boost/impl', and each 
> library that has sourse files could have an .hpp file that 
> includes all 
> of its source files (that would normally need to be compiled 
> separately).
> 
> This way, any user, even not having bjam, can include the 
> implementation 
> of a library, as simple as:
> // this is included in ONLY one source file
> #include <boost/impl/filesystem.hpp>
> 
> As a regular user, I'd rather have the above, than having to 
> use bjam to 
> build a library.
> 
> If people agree, I volunteer to create the /boost/impl 
> directory for all 
> the libraries that now need to be compiled separately, 
> somewhere this week.

That's not always reasonable. 

>From the point of view of the Wave library (I file a review request
shortly), certainly you _can_ include all of the library at once, but this
would raise compilation times up to hours! That's why Wave contains several
source files, which only purpose is to separate certain template
instantiation into it's own translation unit. For the average user
compilation time drops drastically this way. 

Regards Hartmut