[boost] Compatibility between boost versions

From: Klaus Nowikow (nowikow_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-07-14 09:06:49

My company is currently developing a new set of software packages
(applications, static and dynamic libraries) that are all expected
to work together (i.e., the libraries will be linked to more than
one of the applications, and the libraries will interoperate and depend
on one another).
In addition, the system has to be extensible, i.e. new DLLs will be added
in the future without requiring to rebuild the other components.

I use many parts of the boost libraries, not only for the implementation
details, but also in the interfaces of the libraries (e.g. the iterator
adaptors, type_traits, call_traits, variant, mpl...).

This leads to the question: are different versions of the boost
libraries compatible with each other? Can I use a newer version of boost
in future additions to our system and expect them to work together or will
we have to rebuild the whole system when we decide to use a new version
of boost?

I don't expect a definite answer to this complex question, but is it
possible to estimate how likely it is that newer versions of boost
will require us to rebuild all?

Best regards,

Klaus