Re: [boost] [boost.money] was: status of Boost Unicode library/enhancements ?

From: John Maddock (john_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-03-31 13:02:43

> This a big problem we have to do something about somehow. There are a
> lot of rather big libraries that takes so much time to develop, that
> it is unrealistic that people can do them in their spare-time.
> (unicode, xml, database seems to be the most needed right now)

Right, and some of those: certainly Unicode is going to be very time 
intensive, and require ongoing support as new Unicode versions are produced 
etc.

> I imagine that many companies would be willing to pay, say 100 USD,
> to support eg. a unicode library. That is sufficiently low for me
> to be able to persuade my boos, for example.
>
> If we have some kind of estimate
> of how expensive it would be to develop the library, it might turn out
> that 100-200 willing companies would be enough fully fund the initial
> development.

As Dave A. says, it creates problems if Boost.org becomes a legal entity 
accepting money etc.

However, I note that OSDL have just started a fellowship fund for FOSS 
projects, although they're very tied to Linux-related projects.  See 
http://www.osdl.org/lab_activities/fellowship_fund/

I also note that Sourceforge has a project-donation facility that we've 
never turned on.  I guess one solution would be for individual users to 
start their own SF project, turn on the donation option and then request 
funds.... but it requires a fair amount of trust on all sides.

John.