Headers only or .o

From: Damian Vicino (damian_at_[hidden])
Date: 2021-03-15 11:48:27

Hi,
I was reading the development section of the docs:
https://www.boost.org/development/index.html
And, I noticed there was nothing in the development guidelines about when
to implement as headers-only vs built library.
I got my own ideas of why most libraries are headers-only. But, I was
wondering if someone with the historical context (someone who was here when
those first libraries were developed) can share how boost got into the
current shape and what new library developers should look into when
deciding to go headers-only or not.
I appreciate any anecdotes, guidelines, tradeoffs, thumb rules, comments on
the topic. I would love to collect as much as possible here in this thread
and write something to post in the development doc section in the website
for future reference.
Best,
Damian