Re: C++ Deflate (zlib-like) library

From: Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-03-06 18:46:05

On Fri, Mar 6, 2020 at 10:32 AM Peter Dimov via Boost
<boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> Practice shows that this isn't that convenient for a low-level dependency.
> Inevitably, header-only library A wants to use it header-only, and library B
> wants to use it as a compiled library, and things go south pretty quickly.
>
> We already hit this scenario in
> https://github.com/boostorg/timer/commit/10bf0e3d6d79e53a79f8d9e56991f855af862f45.
> (See also
> https://github.com/boostorg/timer/commit/05ae7c47e99038c5f777c9682980d6d7f5d2b768.)

That's not applicable to the deflate use-case, because the deflate
library has no dependencies.

If I did write a library which had a dependency on another library
which offered a header-only option, then yes it would be a mistake (if
not downright rude and presumptuous) to dictate to the user how the
downstream dependency must be consumed (header-only or linked
library).

Thanks