Re: [epochs] Proposal for an epoch-based organization of Boost libraries

From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-05-23 20:46:36

On 5/23/2020 5:56 AM, Joaquin M López Muñoz via Boost wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Prompted by general feelings about Boost perceived lack of modernization 
> and internal "bloat",
> and after an explicit survey on what users dislike about Boost [1], I 
> decided to try and write a more
> or less fleshed out proposal for an epoch-based organization of Boost 
> libraries. I've extensively
> tested and refined the proposal during discussions on Reddit and the 
> Boost Slack channel,
> and I feel this is now ready for presentation at the mailing list:
> 
> https://github.com/joaquintides/boost_epoch/blob/master/README.md
> 
> I hope the proposal can start a productive conversation. Looking forward 
> to your feedback.

I wrote cxx_dual anticipating the problem that end-users might be 
disappointed that Boost libraries use other Boost libraries rather than 
C++11 on up equivalent libraries. So I am not at all surprised by some 
of the comments about Boost.

I have always been for each library reporting what level of C++ that 
library supports, even in detail if the library optionally supports some 
features of later C++ standards.

I do believe people overreact to dependencies, however. All good 
software design involves reusing established code when necessary. 
Reinventing code simply for the sake of less dependencies has always 
seemed to me a fool's game, unless there is a very good practical reason 
for not using established code.

I am totally against the idea that some code which works perfectly in 
C++03, as well as all other C++ standard levels, needs to be 
unnecessarily updated to some later C++ standard level in order to be 
acceptable to anyone.