Re: [boost] Library categories

Subject: Re: [boost] Library categories
From: Stewart, Robert (Robert.Stewart_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-11-29 13:37:08

Vicente J. Botet Escriba wrote:
>
> I was wondering if we can add other categories to the library catalog
> (http://www.boost.org/users/history/version_1_47_0.html).
>
> Here is a proposal
>
> Domain Specific
>
>      crc
>      units
>      uuid

There have been complaints about "domain specific" being too vague, but code that is, by its nature, not as general as you'd expect to see in the Standard Library, fits.  Having said that, Units  seems to be more miscellaneous than domain specific.  However, if "Math and Numerics" were just Math, then Units would fit there.

> Idioms
> Patterns: libraries that implement a known pattern

I like the Patterns and Idioms grouping.

> Language Emulation: these are libraries are emulating a missing language
> feature

Good.

> State Machines
>
>      meta state machine
>      statechart

That seems too small a group.  Isn't a state machine a pattern?

> System: libraries that are close to the underlying system

Good

> I would add also the following to exixting categories
> Data structures
>
>      optional - Discriminated-union wrapper for optional values, from
> Fernando Cacciola.
>      tribool - 3-state boolean type library, from Doug Gregor.

Perhaps "Simple Data Structures" would be a better name to disambiguate between data structures and containers.

Should Graph be in Containers?  There aren't any containers in that library, are there?

I was going to state that a category with just one entry is unjustified, and one with but two entries is questionable.  However, there's some value in having more categories, even with just one entry, since a searcher may not pick the same category as we do for a given library's functionality.  Thus, while "Parsing" has just one entry, it is an important category and Spirit would be missed by someone looking for a parsing library.

_____
Rob Stewart                           robert.stewart_at_[hidden]
Software Engineer                     using std::disclaimer;
Dev Tools & Components
Susquehanna International Group, LLP  http://www.sig.com

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