Re: [boost] [Git] Moving beyond arm waving?

Subject: Re: [boost] [Git] Moving beyond arm waving?
From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-02-08 16:03:33

Dave wrote:

> You only have to generate a forwarding header when you actually have a new
> header file.  Yes, you have to check for the existence of forwarding headers
> each time, but that's not the same cost as actually generating them.

Forwarding headers have the advantage of working regardless of the
filesystem. But many Boost lib developers are running on filesystems
that support directory symlinks. Directory symlinks have a lot of
advantages; you only have to generate one per library, they are
faster, and easier to use with IDE's that let you click on a header to
open it. With a forwarding header, you have to do that twice to get at
the real header.

I've been testing on Windows with boost/filesystem being a directory
symlink to ../../libs/filesystem/include/boost/filesystem and it works
smoothly with no changes whatsoever to either by bjam testing or
VisualC++ IDE testing.

Would it be possible to generate directory symlinks instead of
forwarding headers if the filesystem supports them?

--Beman