[boost] Re: Bagging a boost namespace

From: Ken Hagan (K.Hagan_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-01-26 07:46:20

"Andy Little" <andy_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> I am writing a library with hopes that it may, one day, become part
> of boost. Whether it ever makes it to the main libraries or not it
> would be nice to fit it in to the boost namespace system. Should I
> grab a boost sub-namespace e.g boost::my_whacky_library or should I
> avoid  the boost namespace entirely? I feel a bit 'cheeky' using the
> boost namespace for something that is not 'officially' boost. Is
> there any policy on this?

I thought one of the original intentions of namespaces was to avoid
such questions. Specifically, you could develop the library in a
non-boost namespace and then move it into boost later. Clients
would anticipate the change and protect themselves by using a
namespace alias.

I haven't done much namespace changing myself, so if there are
traps around (say) argument-dependent lookup then I won't be
familiar with them, but I would have thought it was a fair strategy
to start with and I would hope that a complete list of "traps and
their workarounds" could be compiled.