Re: [boost] [type_traits] Modularization proposal

Subject: Re: [boost] [type_traits] Modularization proposal
From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-09-16 15:47:32

On Tuesday 16 September 2014 20:06:27 John Maddock wrote:
> > Boost.TypeTraits is used in lots of other Boost libraries, and it
> > currently
> > unnecessarily pulls MPL and TypeOf. The dependencies are introduced by
> > just
> > these two public headers: floating_point_promotion.hpp and
> > common_type.hpp.
> > I'd like to avoid these dependencies.
> > 
> > I propose to extract common_type.hpp (and its implementation and tests)
> > into a sublib within type_traits (e.g. type_traits/common_type).
> > 
> > As for floating_point_promotion.hpp, it is used in promote.hpp, which is
> > using integral_promotion.hpp. I can see two ways of tackling it:
> > 
> > 1. Extract all promotion traits into a sublib (e.g.
> > type_traits/promotion).
> > This includes floating_point_promotion.hpp, integral_promotion.hpp and
> > promote.hpp, as well as their tests.
> 
> What happens to boost/type_traits.hpp in this scheme (which depends on
> *all* of type_traits)?

Hmm, I didn't notice that header. Ok, assuming we don't want to move this one 
header to its own sublib, what if we approach it from the other side. We can 
move all type traits except common_type.hpp and type_traits.hpp to a sublib 
base (i.e. type_traits/base). floating_point_promotion.hpp would be changed to 
not depend on MPL before moving to base.

Side note: I don't want to reserve the name 'core' for there were discussions 
about creating TypeTraits.Core that would not depend on MPL.Core.