[boost] What is Boost?

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-09-27 10:46:24

Hi,

Last night I hosted a birds-of-a-feather session at the SD Best
Practices conferences here in Boston.  I was encouraged that, at a
conference that only adopted a C++ track this year, we had 15 people
there.  It was about evenly split between people who were using Boost
and those who just came to find out more about it.  Those who were
using Boost were really enthusiastic.

I was stunned to discover that the rest of them reported that wanted
to know what Boost _is_, but that the website doesn't tell them.  And
when they said that, it hit me like a ton of bricks: they're right!

We really need a section at the top of the page titled "What is Boost?"
that covers something like the following:

* Boost is a collection of C++ libraries
  - Free for any use
  - Extensively peer-reviewed
  - Extensively Tested

* When you download Boost, you get the whole collection

* There are some dependencies among libraries, but they are not
  tightly coupled

* There is a tool (bcp) for extracting the parts you want and their
  dependencies.

* Many boost libraries can be used just by putting the library
  collection's top directory in your #include path. Complete
  instructions for getting started are at: ___

* The important features of the Boost directory structure are:
  - boost
  - libs
  - more
  - tools
  (with rough descriptions of each)

I'd like to see some discussion of what's missing (or extra) in the
list above...
 and a volunteer to write the introductory passage :)

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com