Re: Tagging the minimum C++ standard level for Boost libs

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-12-15 18:14:04

Edward Diener wrote:
> I had previously proposed that we tag the minimum C++ standard level for
> Boost libs by adding information to the json meta information in
> libraries.json for each library. I would like to revisit that proposal,
> which involved more elaborate suggestions, with this simpler overall
> proposal: for each Boost C++ library whose minimum C++ standard level is
> C++11 or above we add a json field called 'cxxstd' whose value corresponds
> to one of the same values as currently exists in Boost.Build for the
> 'cxxstd' feature, ie. 11,14,17,20, to the libraries.json file for that
> library. This json value can then be used in Boost documentation of each
> library to specify the minimum C++ standard level needed by an end-user in
> order to use that library. Obviously we can also add "cxxstd": "03" for
> the many Boost libraries which can still be used at the C++98/C++03
> compilation level also, even though I would argue that not having a
> "cxxstd" json field should mean C++98/C++03 by default. I would be willing
> to create the necessary PRs for each library, as I have a pretty good
> internal list of this information.
>
> The gist of this proposal is to make it much easier for end-users wishing
> to use a Boost library to immediately know whether the library they wish
> to use is usable at the C++ standard compilation level they are using for
> compilation, without having to spend time searching for such information,
> which is often not readily available, in the documentation of the library
> they are considering.

I see nothing wrong with adding this field to meta/libraries.json. However, 
libraries.json is not for end users. It's input to the scripts that generate 
the libraries page. So if we add the field, we should also change the 
scripts to read it and display it in the library list.

Unfortunately all those scripts were written and maintained by Daniel James 
who isn't available, so someone else would need to figure this out.