Re: [boost] Which Boost libraries support which compilers/versions

From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-29 12:31:17

David Abrahams wrote:
> on Sun Jul 29 2007, Edward Diener <eldiener-AT-tropicsoft.com> wrote:
> 
>> I do not think that the situation I have outlined here is good for Boost 
>> from the end users perspective. The typical end user, when wanting to 
>> use a particular 3rd party library whether of Boost or otherwise, wants 
>> to know immediately, before any other action is taken, whether that 
>> library supports the compiler/version he is using.
>>
>> I believe Boost should make it both much easier and always possible to 
>> determine whether a particular compiler/version can be used with a 
>> particular library in a particular version of Boost without the end user 
>> trying to use a library and, if he can not, encountering compiler 
>> errors. He may not know, even from compiler errors, whether or not the 
>> errors are his own or simply because the compiler is not supported for 
>> that library.
>>
>> This is not a criticism of Boost in general and certainly not the 
>> excellent smartptr library, but instead it is an effort to get Boost to 
>> create some easier system by which end users can determine whether or 
>> not they can use a Boost library in the particular working situation in 
>> which they find themselves.
> 
> We all know it's a problem, but nobody has yet designed and
> implemented a solution.  Perhaps you'd be willing to take up the
> charge?
> 

I am not a Boost developer but rather an end user using Boost. I do not 
know why you want end users to solve problems which the Boost developers 
should solve IMO.

The most obvious solution is that each compiler/version supported for a 
particular release of Boost needs a regression test run for each library 
of that release, and that final test result needs to be kept permanently 
somewhere for each Boost release.

If this is not possible it seems that each library developer should know 
which of the compilers/versions which are supported for a given release 
of Boost works for his library and keep that information permanently 
somewhere in his library documentation.

If neither of these are possible then it is up to the end user to 
experiment with each library he wants to use for a given release of Boost.

Normally with 3rd party software, the software developer of that library 
can ascertain and document which compiler/versions are supported to work 
  with his library. I do not understand why Boost developers do not 
consider this information important enough to at least document what 
compiler/versions work with their library.

It seems you want someone else, such as I who am a non-Boost developer, 
to do this for you, but I have no idea why unless you feel that merely 
making the suggestion that the system should be better means that I 
should have the responsibility to make it better.