Re: [boost] Boost packages?

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-04-01 20:13:47

on Sun Apr 01 2007, "MÃ¥rten RÃ¥nge" <marten.range-AT-gmail.com> wrote:

> In my world I would then like to download the smart pointer boost package
> (with dependencies?) which should be a fairly small download. Due to a more
> manageable size I would then foresee that it would easier for me to get it
> into the source control system and into the build environment. Also, it
> would be easier for me to convince the systems architect that boost is worth
> more than the hassle it introduces (right now I can't).

As mentioned elsewhere by Manuel Fiorelli,
http://www.boost.org/tools/bcp/bcp.html

> Later when people see the benefit of boost and we want to do some text
> parsing I'd like to download the boost.spirit package and set it up.

Likewise.

> And so on.
>
> I would also think that packaging boost in different packages (a small base
> package and then perhaps each individual library as a package) would give
> benefits to the development of the new releases. Right now I have the
> feeling that getting a new release is rather daunting task. Which I guess
> comes from boost being a monolithic, large library that supports many
> different compilers and platforms.

No, boost is not even one library much less a monolithic one.  Boost
is a library collection.  I've seen the dependencies among the Boost
libraries graphed, and unlike some other development frameworks,
which just show up as a big blob, Boost is neatly partitioned and the
dependencies tend to be a unidirectional DAG.

> By packaging boost into several different packages one could perhaps have
> different release schedules for different packages?

We've been over that question many times, and many of us disagree.
Though Boost is not monolithic, there are enough dependencies among
libraries that it's important they can all be released together in a
state where they interoperate correctly.

We do have a plan to speed up releases.  Please see this thread:
http://archives.free.net.ph/thread/20060514.212258.a8a17ce6.en.html
Unfortunately the link to beman's original proposal is dead :(.
Beman, do you think you could make that available again?  Maybe just
post the text to this list?  As 1.34 approaches it's probably a good
idea to get that back into the collective consciousness.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com
Don't Miss BoostCon 2007! ==> http://www.boostcon.com