Re: What do I need Boost for?

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2022-05-25 00:39:35

On 5/24/22 12:30 PM, Andrzej Krzemienski via Boost wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
> In connection with the recent discussions on the future of Boost, I would
> like to offer a perspective of someone who is a consumer of open-source
> (but also commercial) libraries.
> _______________________________________________
> Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost
> 

As usual a tour de force.

A very cogent description of what boost should aim for.

I doesn't have much really specific information about what we change. 
We don't agree on this much anyway.  In this sense, I think we're kind 
of stuck.

I very much agree that the aim of boost should be the "certification of 
quality for modular software components".  I think it articulates what 
the goal of boost should be.  I have personally advocated for such a 
role in the past multiple times.

At one time I thought boost would fade away with the incorporation of 
many boost core components into the standard.  But I no longer believe 
that.  The standard library is getting more an more difficult to extend 
and maintain, the committee is starting to have it's own political 
problems and other issues.

Note that all these comments apply to the (modular) libraries - note 
core language issues.

I don't have much to say as Andrzej articulated my views rather well. 
So I'm here to say +1

I do have one specific idea we could implement which I think would be a 
step in the right direction.  I think we should distribute pre-built 
documentation with each library.  Disk space is not longer an issue.  If 
we did this, users and prospective users could down load the boost 
module and immediately browse the library documentation without any 
other intermediate steps. it would be an easy change - in fact, I 
already do it for my libraries.  No one has seen fit to complain about 
it - why would they anyway.

Robert Ramey