Re: [boost] [website] Proposal for new page - Libraries By Type

From: Beth Jacobson (bethj_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-19 19:24:44

Jeff Garland wrote:
> 
> I've taken a shot at a different categorization once upon a time:
> 
> http://www.crystalclearsoftware.com/cgi-bin/boost_wiki/wiki.pl?OOPSLA2004/Library_Roadmap
> 
> That said, I'm not sure I ever heard an answer why Beth considers the current
> categories insufficient:
> 
> http://www.boost.org/libs/libraries.htm

They're not insufficient for their purpose, but they are insufficient 
for what I'm trying to do here: to introduce people to the Boost 
Libraries. If, as someone completely new to Boost, I browse the 
categories, I might find something of immediate interest (String and 
text processing, say, or Template Metaprogramming), but there's a good 
chance I won't. I'll still have no idea that there are Boost Libraries 
that can simplify coding, prevent common bugs, etc. I won't know that 
Boost has lots of great utilities or full-featured libraries like 
date-time, serialization, etc. (Again, this isn't a criticism of the 
categories. They're meant to sort the libraries into logical categories, 
not introduce them to new users.)

Your list gives a better overview of the range of subjects the libraries 
deal with, and would probably interest a lot more casual visitors, but 
it's still not quite what I'm aiming for here. People who visit the 
website have a wide range of needs, interests, experience, and time to 
invest in learning a new library, and I'd like to send each to a list of 
libraries that would be most applicable to them. This may be an 
impossible goal -- my first attempt hasn't been very successful  -- and 
maybe a more functional categorization like you've proposed is the way 
to go. Some of your categories definitely whet my interest -- I can't 
wait to check out that GUI library ;-) -- but when I think of some of 
the libraries I've used the most (smart_ptr, date-time, operators, 
multi_arrays, filesystem), I don't see much there that might point me in 
their direction or give me a clue that they exist. Of course no list can 
do that for all the libraries and still be short enough for easy 
browsing, but perhaps we can get a little closer yet.