Re: [boost] "boost cold shoulder" (was proposal for #pragma oncesupport)

Subject: Re: [boost] "boost cold shoulder" (was proposal for #pragma oncesupport)
From: Sid Sacek (ssacek_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-06-10 11:39:11

John and Pete,

I do appreciate your insights into the inner workings of the Boost
community.  I'm not discouraged about the lack of interest in my
suggestion, but I was somewhat surprised.  Boost libraries are one of
those things that make life better for programming engineers.  I
believed that was the unwritten philosophy behind Boost, to "Make Life
Better."  Extending that philosophical notion, the Boost libraries would
also know about the shortcomings of compilers and operating systems and
help to improve their performance as well, simply because it "makes life
better."

I suppose I must have been mistaken about that... perhaps not everybody
in the Boost community has feelings of magnanimity and charity.

-Sid Sacek

-----Original Message-----
From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden]
[mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of John Phillips
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 6:15 PM
To: boost_at_[hidden]
Subject: Re: [boost] "boost cold shoulder" (was proposal for #pragma
oncesupport)

Pete Bartlett wrote:
>> I brought this topic up a couple of months ago, and I got the "Boost
>> Cold Shoulder".
>>
>> You see, I believe the head-honchos here are GCC aficionados and
don't
>> care much about Bill Gate's compilers.
>>
>> I hope you do better than I did.
>>
>> -Sid Sacek
> 
> I'm not any sort of honcho here so I hope you don't mind if I
disagree.
> 

   I'm going to disagree, as well. I just went back into the archives 
and looked at your thread, and I'm confused by your perception of a cold

shoulder. I count 26 posts in the thread over less than 4 days, in a 
discussion that includes some library maintainers and one of the 
moderators. This a reasonably active discussion for around here.

   I agree that no one showed up and said "You have permission, go ahead

and do it." However, as Pete points out, that just isn't the way Boost 
works. All broad action in Boost happens by first building a wide 
consensus in the community. If you notice, when moderators such as Dave 
  or Beman have ideas for changes, they follow the same process of 
discussion on the list and building consensus. On some occasions they 
don't generate enough interest or agreement and their ideas go by the 
wayside. It isn't always quick, but it is the way Boost works.

   More broadly, please continue contributing. Not every idea you have 
will be what the community does, but getting your ideas in the mix is 
central to how we function. (For the record, some of my ideas have gone 
down in flames, or just produced no broad interest, so I know where of I

speak.)

                        John

_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe & other changes:
http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost