Re: [boost] Boost Units library preview

From: Dave Steffen (dgsteffen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-08-23 14:07:23

Greer, Joe writes:
[...]

 > Also, make sure that you are solving problems that are really
 > likely to occur.  It is nice to be as absolutely type safe as
 > possible, but often that gets in the way of getting real work done
 > as well.  Just a thought.

 Ya know, that's a very good point, and it puts a name to that little
 nagging thing that's been bugging me during this whole discussion.

 What, exactly, are this library's use cases?

 All kinds of people want all kinds of things.  It seems to me that
 most of the discussion about these libraries - both the current one
 and the-library-recently-renamed Quan - are circular swirls of "I'd
 like it to do this" and "but then what about that".

 I think this is because there is not clearly stated purpose to "Unit
 Library".  What, exactly, is it used for?  What code can you not
 write that you could write with the Units Library/Quan?  What errors
 can you make now that you can't make with Units Library/Quan?

 Maybe these questions have been answered, and I didn't notice 'em
 going past; but based on these discussions, I'm inclined to think
 that in general, no two people agree on exactly _why_ these libraries
 are useful.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Steffen, Ph.D.      
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Numerica Corporation
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