Re: [boost] [Boost-users] Maintenace Guidelines wiki page

Subject: Re: [boost] [Boost-users] Maintenace Guidelines wiki page
From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-11-25 15:49:34

My take on this whole question is a lot different.

Boost libraries cover a wide range.

Quality of design varies from good to excellent
Quality of implementation varies from good to excellent
Depth of documentation varies from minimal to complete.
Quality of documentation varies from OK to excellent
Runtime performance varies from abismal to good and maybe excellent in some 
cases
Support from library author varies from non-existent to immediate
Some libraries will work on all compilers, others only on the most 
conforming
Stability varies from rock solid to - work in progress
etc, etc.

In the quest for excellence - which libraries are you going to set aside?

All libraries are useful to someone - and likely more than a few people.

And I might use a library that is less than what I want in some aspect
because it's still better than rolling my own.

So the idea of imposing more and more infrastructure to get
better quality wouldn't work.  And if implemented would result
in a smaller number of useful libraries being available to those of
us that need them.

What I really need is a better way to assess the library along the
above dimensions.  Making this type of information publically
available would help me decide which libraries to consider
and would let authors know what they need to address to
make their libraries more popular.

So here's an idea.

A special web page accessable to anyone who has downloaded boost.

On this page, one could indicate which libraries he uses/has used, etc.
and rate them along the dimensions above

A - excellent
B - good
C - OK
D - below par
F - sorry - but this sucks

and there would be space for a short comment and for the author
to respond.

Then if I'm considering using library X, I could check out
the "ratings summary" for this library and decide whether or not
to risk investing my time in it.

While, we're at it, lets include boost tools in the above system as well.

I've now convinced myself that this is such a great idea that when
I have nothing else to do, I'll do this myself just to drive traffic to
my web site.

Robert Ramey