Re: [boost] [preprocessor] Link to Boostpro site for introduction to preprocessor metaprogramming

Subject: Re: [boost] [preprocessor] Link to Boostpro site for introduction to preprocessor metaprogramming
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-05-20 18:31:37

On 5/19/2015 4:58 AM, Rob Stewart wrote:
> On May 18, 2015 9:44:10 PM EDT, Edward Diener <eldiener_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> The preprocessor documentation has a link to the Boostpro site which
>> had
>> an html version of the Appendix A of "C++ Template Metaprogramming" by
>>
>> Abrahams and Gurtovoy. Appendix A is "An Introduction to Preprocessor
>> Metaprogramming", which is all about Boost PP.
>>
>> Alas Boostpro is no more and the link in the preprocessor
>> documentation goes nowhere.
> [snip]
>> Does anyone know how to contact either of them ? I can try their
>> addresses in maintainers.txt but I do not want to directly encroach on
>> their privacy if there is a better way.
>
> You could check the wayback machine: https://archive.org/web/.

I was able to create the "Appendix A of 'C++ Template Metaprogramming'" 
locally, from the wayback machine download, as part of the Boost PP 
documentation, and link to its local copy as part of the initial page of 
Boost PP. I was able to remove all the wayback machine cruft and the 
documentation looks smooth.

Should I still attempt to contact Dave Abrahams and Aleksey Gurtovoy 
about this, to get their permission ?

The Boost PP doc gives them and their book full credit for the tutorial 
and of course the tutorial pages show exactly where it comes from. But I 
do not want to be infringing on copyrights or anyone's rights in this. 
The Boost PP documentation previously linked to the boostpro site to 
present the tutorial, and therefore it must have been fine with the 
authors who were among the leaders and guiding forces of Boost at that time.

Anyone have any strong opinions one way or the other ?

I do want to keep the tutorial for Boost PP if at all possible, as it is 
an excellent introduction to the library, and I am pretty sure Paul 
Mensonides would agree with that. There is a Boost PP trac bug report 
mentioning that the link in the latest versions of Boost is broken, so 
this is my attempt to fix it.