Re: [boost] [beast] Request for Discussion

Subject: Re: [boost] [beast] Request for Discussion
From: Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-09-23 16:27:20

On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 1:18 PM, Robert Ramey <ramey_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> On 9/23/16 11:50 AM, Niall Douglas wrote:
>> ...
>> Almost everyone here and in the wider C++ community wants somebody to
>> take the HTTP client API from the Python Requests module
>> (http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/) and very closely
>> replicate it in C++
>
> I'm not understanding this point.  Vinnie just said that it doesn't
> currently offer more than a minimal level of functionality.  Sounds to me
> that you're agreeing with him

He's definitely disagreeing. Beast does these things:

* Serialize HTTP/1 messages (sync or async)
* Deserialize HTTP/1 messages (sync or async)
* Model HTTP messages universally

This is the lowest level of functionality a library can offer with
respect to HTTP. All higher level operations can be expressed in terms
of these primitives. The corollary is all higher level operations are
impossible without any of these operations.

Niall and others are saying that a library offering the low level
building blocks of HTTP is insufficient to become part of Boost. He
and others believe that common use cases such as a full features HTTP
client or a generic asynchronous threaded HTTP server need to be part
of any approved Boost library that claims to solve any HTTP-related
problems.

I disagree, and I hope a sufficient number of other folks disagree as well.

Thanks