Re: [boost] [Booster] Or boost is useless for library developers

Subject: Re: [boost] [Booster] Or boost is useless for library developers
From: Isidor Zeuner (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-05-15 13:40:49

> joel falcou wrote:
> 
> > Artyom wrote:
> >>> Sure, boost ABI changes from release to release but unless
> >>> you want to provide a "one-for-all" binary release of your
> >>> library, what is the issue? Even libstdc++ ABI changes every
> >>> now and then.
> >>>     
> >>
> >> Not correct. GCC keeps ABI since gcc-3.4... And this is
> >> now about 6 years... Not bad?
> >>   
> > Were people upset back then then ?
> 
> Yes. What's your point though? It's surely impossible to hope
> that a given binary library will be usable for decades. But breaking
> ABI once in 6 years (if not more) is surely better than potentially
> breaking ABI 4 times per year?
> 

But these are different matters. The gcc ABI was changed to reflect
the standard ABI back then. Boost, however, claims to be a working
ground to establish practises to be eventually standardized. So ABI
breaking comes with the terrain and is probably even useful in order
to find the best practises which deserve standardization.

Best regards,

Isidor