Re: [boost] ABI and API compatibility

From: Vladimir Prus (vladimir_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-04-24 06:46:23

Sebastian Redl wrote:

> Jens Seidel wrote:
>> On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 09:14:25AM +0400, Vladimir Prus wrote:
>>   
>>> 1. Applications using 1.35.0 need not be changed at all.
>>>     
>>
>> This means the API, the Application Program Interface, does not
>> change (no changes in source code required).
>>   
> This ought to be doable without too much trouble for minor releases.
>>> 2. If application link to 1.35.0 as dynamic library, then
>>> switching them to use 1.35.1 should not break anything.
>>>     
>>
>> This means the ABI, the Application Binary Interface, does not
>> change.
>>   
> Since most of Boost's libraries are header-only, that's meaningless for
> them. Mostly, anyway.
> ABI compatibility is to be maintained by the compiled libraries
> foremost, they would have to worry about this the most. It can be done
> with a bit of understanding of the issues and some discipline.
> The question is, is it worth it? Any application that uses a precompiled
> Boost component probably uses other Boost components, too. As such, the
> likelihood is high that upgrading Boost means recompiling the
> application. 

Why? If there's no interesting change in that other Boost component in a 
1.35.1, I don't really need to recompile.

- Volodya