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

From: Joaquin M López Muñoz (joaquinlopezmunoz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-05-24 08:20:30

El 23/05/2020 a las 22:46, Edward Diener via Boost escribió:
> 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 [...]
>
> 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.
>

In this particular case, there are two establshed codes: Boost and std. 
Seems like some end
users strongly favor the latter as it's not perceived as a real 
dependency in the sense that
additional libs need be downloaded etc.

> 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. 

This looks somewhat at odds with one of the stated goals of your 
cxx_dual lib:

"On a more practical basis the CXXD library is for:

 1. Programmers writing code not using C++11 syntax who still want to
    target some
    C++11 libraries if the code is compiled in C++11 mode.
    [...]"

Joaquín M Lopez Muñoz