Re: [boost] Use of third-party libraries

Subject: Re: [boost] Use of third-party libraries
From: Michael Shepanski (mps_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-07-25 02:53:34

On 24/07/2014 7:56 PM, Roland Bock wrote:
> On 2014-07-24 04:35, Michael Shepanski wrote:
>> - boost/libs/quince/Jamfile.v2 should somehow detect which third-party
>> libraries are present, and build the corresponding backend libraries.
>> If there are more than zero, it should build the core quince library.
> Sounds good to me except for the last item.
>
> Assuming there is no backend for the database I am interested in, I
> might want to have quince core in order to develop that backend. I
> therefore think that quince core should always be built.

In that case, sooner or later you're going to have to tweak quince's jam 
file, to make the building of your backend contingent on the presence of 
some third-party library (fron MySQL or Oracle or whatever).

Now the item you object to has the effect of forcing you to do this 
sooner rather than later. I would argue that that's no real hardship, 
and I was all ready to say it's outweighed by Rob Stewart's statement 
that "If it requires at least one to be useful, then it should not build 
when none of those libraries is available. Otherwise, your library won't 
be acceptable."

However:

I'm coming around to Karsten Ahnert's idea that I should ship sqlite. (I 
wouldn't call it a "default backend", as Karsten does, because 
application code still has to make a choice -- but that's just a quibble.).

In this way I meet your wishes *and* Rob's *and* Karsten's. Win win win.

All that remains is this point from Karsten:

> Of course the licence of sqlite must then be compatible with the boost license.

Sqlite is totally unrestricted (http://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html). 
So would my distribution of it have to carry a boost licence? And if so, 
will there be complaints that I'm restricting something that should be 
unrestricted?

--- Michael