Re: [boost] [Review] Fixed Strings review period extended

From: Hartmut Kaiser (hartmut.kaiser_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-01-29 22:18:42

Andy Little wrote:

> > normally, the review period of the Fixed Strings library written by 
> > Reece Dunn ended today. All we got so far are 3 reviews, 
> which is too 
> > less to make a proper decision. I really would like to 
> encourage you 
> > to submit a review for this library to get a representative result. 
> > For this reason I'ld like to extend the review period for 
> another week 
> > until February 5th to allow for more reviews. I'm convinced, that a 
> > Fixed Strings library would make a good addition to Boost 
> and in the 
> > end it should be useful to a lot more of people than to the 
> 3 of us who send in a review.
> 
> A Fixed Strings library but this one? . 

If you read my mail carefully - I never said 'this one'.

> What interests me is 
> that  the fixed_string library is way ahead as the top 
> download in the Vault download list, but few reviewers have 
> resulted.  I feel the mystery can be explained by the reviews 
> so far. looking through them we have all said pretty much the 
> same thing. Surprise that there is no overflow policy. 
> Concern at the lack of detail in the documentation and the 
> way the documentation and the class itself are laid out.
> IOW as currently implemented fixed_string isnt delivering 
> what it seems to promise. I hope Reece takes this in his 
> stride by the way . I would guess that has to be the reason 
> why so many downloads have resulted in so little response. It 
> must be worth analysing that lack of response as a first step 
> in revisiting the design.

As you might have expected, I read through the reviews _very_ carefully. 

There are two reasons, why I proposed to extend this review. 
1) The library was downloaded by more than 400 interested people and I don't
expect the 3 reviews to represent all of them.
2) Even if the currently reviewed library won't be accepted to Boost mainly
for the reasons stated by the three reviews, I think we need a Fixed Strings
library in Boost and the more dicussion we get the better for a future
library.

Regards Hartmut