Re: [boost] [filesystem][program_options][serialization][test] fromcomp.lang.c++.moderated

From: Darren Cook (darren_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-05-09 00:28:37

> One of boosts roles is to do research and development, the other is to establish 
> existing practise. The R& D role inevitably results in the need to break an 
> existing interface in the interest of providing a better one, however that is 
> inevitably not going to go down well with existing users. Establishing existing 
> practise demands a high level of stability.  Perhaps there needs to be a clear 
> policy on the procedure to follow to go about modifying the interface ...

There has been talk about splitting boost into more manageable chunks
for a long time and that seems to an ideal split line:

    stable: interface will never change; only bug fixes in future

    experimental: interface may change in a subsequent release

Requirements for stable could be: no changes in at least 6 months and
author(s) having no intention to make changes.

If an author wants to make backwards-incompatible changes to a stable
library they make it a new library, with a new name (even it just
tacking "2" on to the end of the existing name). This should of course
happen very rarely.

Having a stable core will give developers more confidence in using boost
for important projects; I think it is essential.

Darren