Re: Build Boost Back Better

From: William Linkmeyer (wlink10_at_[hidden])
Date: 2022-04-04 19:05:54

I’m more than happy to rewrite parts of the Boost website with, perhaps, bootstrap and mustaches. 

It would be fitting, I think, to use boost-based projects for the website’s back-end  I’m currently working on a boost::beast-based server. It hosts my website, but that’s not exactly mass-tested. 

I am curious in re. the thought that Boost is on a decline. If the point of comparison is high-impact library creation and adoption, then yes, maybe boost is on a decline. But, aren’t there only so many fundamental libraries to create — and doesn’t boost cover virtually all of those fundamental libraries? 

There might be room to pivot in the direction of more user-facing utilities. Things like graphics clients, window managers, or audio I/O come to mind. 

There may also be room to pivot in the opposite direction: embedded utilities. Things such as GPIO, SPI, and I2C come to mind as easy candidates for such a library. The state of that landscape is a bit scattered right now. On one hand, the Linux kernel gives the programmer robust support for such connections — but because all of the support is file-based, programmers generally pick a library with less overhead. That library used to be wiringpi, which has since gone dark. 

Developers may find such projects attractive. If my experience is any indication of how other programmers think, I’ll put it out there: the existing boost libraries are either too well-written (beast), too large, or too domain-specific (math libraries) for me to contribute anything of substance. 

WL

> On Apr 4, 2022, at 1:43 PM, Vinnie Falco via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
> Well, now that I have everyone's attention just before the release,
> I'd like to draw attention to the elephant in the room. That is, the
> declining level of activity on the Boost mailing lists and the
> declining level of participation in the Boost formal review process.
> Both in terms of the number of reviewers, and in terms of the
> difficulty in finding a review manager.
> 
> Clearly, a website update is necessary and along with it some type of
> campaign to highlight once again the important role that Boost serves
> in the C++ community for both professionals and amateurs alike. But
> what more can we do?
> 
> This came up before but it is worth mentioning again; in addition to a
> website update to make boost.org modern and relevant, how do we feel
> about a transition to forum-based discussion instead of the mailing
> list? I realize this will ruffle some feathers but surely the
> alternative, a descent into irrelevance due to steady declining
> activity is worse?
> 
> Discuss.
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Vinnie
> 
> Follow me on GitHub: https://github.com/vinniefalco
> 
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