Re: [boost] Let's stop distributing binaries

Subject: Re: [boost] Let's stop distributing binaries
From: Nevin Liber (nevin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-08-29 20:50:40

On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 3:38 PM Robert Ramey via Boost <
boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> Hmmm - I don't really know what vcpkg actually does.  Basically if we
> distribute only source and no binary then we're not responsible for all
> the stupid stuff that people do with it.
>

We aren't responsible anyway.  Not shipping binaries means we will be
making things harder for some users, especially newcomers to Boost.  Now,
the outcome of this discussion may be that we will no longer ship binaries
because we cannot do it correctly for most use cases, but let's not pretend
not doing so is a benefit to the end user.

> By not distributing binaries, we avoid burdening people who do know what
> they're doing with silent ABI inconsistencies which can cause almost
> impossible to find bugs.

I thought that the people "who do know what they're doing" are building the
binaries themselves anyway, so I fail to see how we are burdening them.
-- 
 Nevin ":-)" Liber  <mailto:nevin_at_[hidden] <nevin_at_[hidden]>>
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