Re: [boost] Which headers to include?

Subject: Re: [boost] Which headers to include?
From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-03-03 18:08:10

On 03/03/18 20:08, Lakshay Garg via Boost wrote:
> Hello Boost
> 
> I am using a few Boost libraries in a project I am working on. I must
> confess that this is perhaps my first serious use of boost so all this
> could just be due to lack of familiarity. The one thing that keeps
> frustrating me about boost is finding out _which headers to include?_
> 
> I am not sure if this is a problem with my googling skills or library
> documentation or maybe I just don't know the proper place to look at
> but most of the times I need to use a library with lots of headers (I
> am looking at Boost.Log) I have to go grepping the boost code.
> 
> Is there something I am missing or is there a better way to go about
> this problem?

With regard to Boost.Log, relevant headers are listed at the very 
beginning of every section, for example:

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_66_0/libs/log/doc/html/log/detailed/sources.html#log.detailed.sources.basic_logger

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_66_0/libs/log/doc/html/log/detailed/sink_backends.html#log.detailed.sink_backends.text_file

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_66_0/libs/log/doc/html/log/detailed/expressions.html#log.detailed.expressions.predicates.advanced_string_matching

The headers (and in many places - classes and functions in the text) are 
links into the Reference section. Most of the time, the header name 
correlates with the component it contains.

Other libraries may have different conventions in the docs, but some 
sort of a reference section is common. You would normally read the docs 
about a component and follow links to the reference section, which 
includes the information about headers. Some libraries also have an 
index section.