Re: [boost] [Review] Phoenix review starts today, September 21st

Subject: Re: [boost] [Review] Phoenix review starts today, September 21st
From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-09-29 07:58:50

on Sun Sep 28 2008, Joel de Guzman <joel-AT-boost-consulting.com> wrote:

>> I think one difference here may be that Joel already knows he has
>> interface-breaking changes planned (if that's not actually the case, I
>> apologize).  Several libraries have had interface-breaking changes after
>> acceptance, but AFAIK these were not anticipated at the time of the
>> review.
>
> Yes, I do anticipate interface-breaking changes. The proto port (What
> we call V3) is special because it actually captures a lot of what I
> had in mind for the next revision. I also expect, as typical with
> a review, more changes that I haven't foreseen. The suggested "optional-
> laziness" and the new and improved switch_ syntax, are two such cases
> of high consideration. I thought it would make sense to addess all
> these in one step.
>
> Again, let me reiterate, that despite all these changes, the design
> and implementation or V2 is still sound, and IMO, pretty much up
> to standards with Boost quality. It is still the solid basis for
> V3 with up to 95% of the interface intact and essentially unchanged
> design and structure.

In case *I* wasn't sufficiently clear about it, let me try to be
painfully explicit: we may want to discuss whether it's good for Boost
or its users if we release a new top-level library and then break its
interface in the next release, three months later.  I'm all for
accepting some version of Phoenix, but I want to make sure that users'
needs for -- and the public perception of -- Boost's stability are
accounted for.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com