Re: [boost] [spirit] Library naming and sub-libraries

Subject: Re: [boost] [spirit] Library naming and sub-libraries
From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-01-04 07:03:14

on Sun Jan 04 2009, Andrey Semashev <andrey.semashev-AT-gmail.com> wrote:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>> on Fri Jan 02 2009, Andrey Semashev <andrey.semashev-AT-gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>   2. Major changes in library functionality should be reviewed.
>
>> Not commenting on #1.  As for #2, 
>>
>> a. That has never been Boost's official policy.  We can have a debate
>>    about it, but that debate has yet to occur and there's certainly no
>>    consensus.
>
> That's true. I was just expressing my point of view. To me, a major addition to an
> accepted library or a major overhaul of its interface is equivalent to a new library
> submission, and therefore it should undergo a review. Maybe, a lightweight one.
>
>> b. I have never seen an example where such a change was conducted with
>>    good library evolution practices and it caused major problems.
>>
>> c. I've seen several examples where undertaking even minor changes
>>    without good library evolution practices causes major pain.
>
> I remember a lengthy discussion about a change in Boost.Range
> recently. Technically, it may not have been a major change in code,
> and I'm not judging now whether that change improved the library or
> not. But the fact is that it caused problems for the end users.

Exactly.  It was a relatively minor change especially when compared to
the Spirit-2 rewrite, which is many orders of magnitude more
significant.  It was probably /more/ of a problem for users than any
major change because it happened relatively quietly without any "this is
going to change your world" fanfare.

> I'm not sure whether it applies to (b) or (c), because I didn't see
> any guidelines of good library evolution practice on the web site.

It's true; someone started to write something, but I think the effort
has flagged a bit
(https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/Guidelines/MaintenanceGuidelines)

Nonetheless, you don't need to have guidelines written down for there to
be such a thing as good practice ;-)

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