[program_options] Proposal: self-contained, header-only port of Boost Program Options library

From: Mike (mike.dev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2019-09-12 13:35:03

> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 12. September 2019 um 05:02 Uhr
> Von: "Vicram Rajagopalan via Boost" <boost_at_[hidden]>
>
> I am interested in creating a header-only implementation of the Boost
> Program
> Options library that only depends on the C++ standard library. Program
> Options
> uses several other Boost libraries, so I would have to re-implement some of
> it using standard library constructs.
>
> I have 2 questions for the community:
> 1. Would you use something like this if it were available?

Probably not. If boost is a dependency anyway, I'd probably stick to the
boost version and if I don't use boost, I'm perfectly happy with one of the
alternatives (cxxopts, clara - to name two).
A modernized version of Boost.ProgramOptions that is part of boost would
probably be more appealing to me.

> 2. Do you know of any implementation details of Program Options which might
> make some part of this difficult or impossible?

Depends on what c++ standard you are targeting. I tried this myself some
time ago (nothing production ready, just a quick POC). I can't remember the
details, but I think I used a lot of c++17 features, so if you target a lower
standard you probably have to internalize a lot of other boost facilities.

Best

Mike