Re: [boost] boost::directx?

Subject: Re: [boost] boost::directx?
From: Zachary Turner (divisortheory_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-06-07 12:20:37

As someone who also uses DirectX and boost, I might as well throw in my 2
cents.

It's true that OpenGL is pretty much non-existant as far as modern 3d
graphics is concerned.  On the other hand, it's true that boost's primary
purpose is portability.  It's nice to have cool libraries of platform
specific stuff that use modern c++ design, but boost can't just turn into a
hodgepodge of every useful library ever that uses modern c++ design
techniques.

It's true that having a library be "in" boost will dramatically increase its
visibility and usage since by definition that means it's met the community's
"seal of approval".  But the very fundamentals of what goes into that seal
of approval is what you're trying to circumvent by including it directly
into boost as boost::directx.

There are other platform specific things in boost, there's no doubt.  Look
at boost::asio::windows::overlapped for example.  The difference is that
there's an entire infrastructure surrounding it that provides access to
basic functionality in a cross platform way.  If you could implement a basic
cross platform 3d library that uses directx on the windows backend and
opengl on any other backend then you'd be onto something, and the you'd be
justified in making a boost::graphics::windows::directx namespace with
everything in the world you wanted.  This is a _ton_ of work however, and it
sounds like you have no interest in doing anything related to OpenGL or any
non-windows platform.  That's understandable, but maybe there's someone else
in the community who could assist with that.

But ultimately the bottom line is that boost is what it is, which is a cross
platform library in the same sense that STL is a cross platform library and
that C++ is a cross platform language.

Assuming you decide to abandon the idea of including this code into boost
due to not wanting to find the people / time / motivation to provide a cross
platform infrastructure around it, then you're right that the DirectX
community will lose out on a potentially valuable library.  But it's easy to
underestimate the importance of cross platform until you start working on
something cross platform yourself.