[boost] TR2 is dead; multiple TR's coming instead

Subject: [boost] TR2 is dead; multiple TR's coming instead
From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-02-17 12:32:42

The C++ committee met last week. There was lot's of discussion and
plans to markedly increase the size of the standard library. Boost has
an important part to play; Bjarne Stroustrup hoped for "doubling the
output of Boost." Herb Sutter is talking about an effort to shake
libraries out of corporations and other large organizations. There
seems be be a fresh infusion of energy, with quite a few new faces at
the meeting.

Plans have firmed and work begun on new C++ library work items. There
are lots of changes in process, and these will affect Boost developers
wishing to propose Boost libraries for technical reports or the
standard itself.

Here are some of the process changes:

* Library proposals will be taken on as "work Items". A decision as to
whether a work item ends up in a technical report, in the standard
itself, or even becomes a stand-alone international standard, will be
deferred until technical work is complete (I.E. full standardese
complete, polished, and ready to ship).

* Domain specific "Study Groups" will replace the LWG's current
sub-groups. Study groups have official ISO standing, so can get more
work done between meetings than the old sub-groups, which were
unofficial.

* Technical reports will likely be smaller than in the past, and may
be domain specific.

These changes are intended to allow work on different libraries to
proceed in parallel. Medium to large libraries managed by study groups
will most likely end up as a TRs and will ship when ready rather than
being held waiting for a larger TR to become ready.

The study groups set up so far:

* SG1: Concurrency and Parallelism (chair: Hans Boehm). This is the
old Concurrency sub-group.

* SG2: Modules (chair: Doug Gregor). A new sub-group of the
committee's evolution working group (EWG).

* SG3: File System (chair: Beman Dawes). A LWG sub-group to handle the
Boost.Filesystem work item approved at the meeting.

* SG4: Networking (chair: Kyle Kloepper). A LWG sub-group to handle
the Boost.Asio work item approved at the meeting.

There should be a "Call for Library Proposals" in the committee's
post-meeting mailing in roughly 10 days.

--Beman