Re: Future of C++ and Boost

From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2022-05-05 16:06:26

On 05/05/2022 16:51, James E. King III via Boost wrote:

> In comparison to other languages, C++ package management still seems
> like it is struggling.  I guess you can use conan and cmake together but
> I haven't done enough to know how easy or difficult it is to do, and it
 looks
> like there are platform specific instructions for either.  Having worked
 with
> python, javascript, perl and rust as well, the package management systems
> have their warts but generally make it a lot easier to consume external
 work
> and release work to others.  It is a significant weakness in the
 ecosystem.

I gotta be honest, last year or two vcpkg "just works" and as far as I'm 
concerned C++ package management is a done deal.

If you're reading that statement and thinking "what's he on about?", 
then I suggest go rebase your cmake projects onto vcpkg manifest mode, 
and once you've climbed the learning curve, I doubt you'll need to look 
back.

Any perception by members of the C++ community that C++ package 
management isn't a done deal for the majority of use cases I think 
that's a training and learning issue. Even cross compiling with vcpkg 
for other targets via a cmake toolchain file "just works" now for most 
packages.

I don't wish to do down other package managers such as conan or cpp-pm, 
but vcpkg has been very much seeing the benefit of full time employees 
working on it. I can even use it over a Samba networked drive now, which 
it previously used to die trying.

Niall