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

From: Thorsten Ottosen (thorsten.ottosen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-03-31 14:38:45

John Maddock wrote:
>>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.

New version can be separate projects or they may be easy enough
to handle as normal maintenance.

>>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.

Ok.

So the money don't go to Boost, but are kept by the one doing the work,
or paid back if there could not be raised enough funds.

I would mind that Boost Consulting handled the money issues as
a community service (and perhaps as a principal developer).

> 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.

Right.

For those paying, the money should be repaid if the library is not 
accepted into boost.

For those developing, continuous discussions on the dev list
should insure a high quality and thus great chances of acceptance.

-Thorsten