Re: [boost] ASIO does not fully support Windows Runtime (WinRT), and a suggestion for providing support

Subject: Re: [boost] ASIO does not fully support Windows Runtime (WinRT), and a suggestion for providing support
From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-01-15 16:25:38

On 15 Jan 2015 at 12:42, Edward Diener wrote:

> I highly object to the tone of your response. Bringing up a matter on 
> this mailing list related to a Boost library is not a command for anyone 
> to do anything. By responding the way you have done you are discouraging 
> people with issues from using Boost mailing lists to start a discussion 
> about a particular library.

I apologise if I have offended anyone on the list, including you 
Edward.

However, there is an etiquette when dealing with deficiencies in open 
source libraries. You first raise the issue with the library's 
maintainers before going onto public lists - and before I replied to 
the OP, I checked the github ASIO issue tracker and the Boost issue 
tracker and found no mention of the deficiencies. It may be the case 
that the OP has spoken to Chris by private email, but his post did 
not indicate that. Furthermore, Chris fairly bluntly stated in the 
ASIO release notes which added WinRT support that that support would 
be limited, and he went into some detail as to how and why. That 
would strongly suggests that the maintainer is well aware of the 
limitations, and has a strong idea of what should be done about them 
(if anything). Moreover, if he has left out a particular support for 
something, he may well have very good reasons for that, including the 
cost benefit reason.

So, go raise it with the maintainer first, and that's probably best 
done as I mentioned via the ASIO github issue tracker which Chris 
definitely responds quickly to. If the maintainer refuses to support 
what you need, *then* come onto this list to see if anyone else is 
having the same problem, *then* see if you can put together a 
coalition of the willing. However, to be honest, I think the 
maintainer will be happy to improve WinRT support, you just need to 
prearrange what form he'd prefer it to come in.

And BTW, after you've talked to Chris and gotten green lit by him, 
absolutely do ping this list with what you've agreed to do and ask 
for feedback on it. The people I'm currently contracting for would be 
very interested in improved WinRT support in ASIO. I'm sure so would 
others on the asio-users ML. And as ASIO is going to be the 
Networking TS, I daresay so would Microsoft, indeed you might even 
get some improvements to WinRT to help ASIO along - we have the main 
Microsoft engineer who ported Boost to WinRT on this mailing list.

Niall

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