Re: [boost] ANN: POCO - C++ Portable Components

From: Cliff Green (cliffg_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-07-21 18:09:55

I've only quickly scanned the POCO web page, but it 
appears that there is quite a bit of overlap with Boost 
(and will be even more overlap in the future). In 
particular:

- Threading (existing in Boost, with upcoming 
enhancements)
- Network programming (Asio, in upcoming release)
- Streams, Filesystem (FS and Iostreams already in Boost)
- Shared libraries, loading (talked about but not in 
Boost)
- Logging, error reporting (submitted but rejected, 
promised for future Boost review)
- Security (not sure if any overlap with Boost)
- XML parsing (talked about, urgently needed in Boost, 
IMO)
- Configuration file, options handling (Program Options 
already in Boost, Property Tree in future release)

It might be interesting to compare interfaces, 
functionality, and semantics, however. Or see if parts of 
the POCO components should be reworked as needed and 
submitted for review to be part of Boost.

ACE is a very mature, capable, and well-tested set of 
libraries (despite the initial appearance of some web 
pages). It has some real advantages (and some 
disadvantages, mostly dealing with it's age, since it's 
vintage is close to 15 years). I and others have made 
comments and given short overviews of ACE in previous 
Boost postings, so a search through the Boost archives 
would help. ACE and Boost are quite different in 
interfaces and approach, so there's not much (if any) mix 
and match between the two (parallel co-existence works 
just fine, as I can attest to from experience).

Cliff