Re: Boost.Compat

From: Zach Laine (whatwasthataddress_at_[hidden])
Date: 2023-04-27 17:57:10

On Thu, Apr 27, 2023 at 10:16 AM Peter Dimov via Boost
<boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> Newer C++ standards (20) have been adding useful things to the
> standard library (<bit>, <latch>, etc) and most of us would like to
> use them, both in Boost and outside of it, while still supporting
> C++11, or 14, or 17.
>
> Many of these components are straightforward to implement
> using the C++11 standard library, consist of not much than one
> relatively small header, don't need many Boost dependencies
> beyond the required ones (Assert, ThrowException, Config), and
> since their interface is already fixed by the standard, don't need
> a design review.
>
> It would be nice if we had a dedicated place in Boost where to
> put these, to avoid the need for everyone reimplementing a
> private copy.
>
> At the moment, some of these have gone into Core, for lack of
> anywhere else, and we now have a <latch> contribution (which I
> encouraged):
>
> https://github.com/boostorg/core/pull/144
>
> However, Core is not quite the right place for these components.
>
> So my suggestion is to create a separate library/repo, Boost.Compat
> (boostorg/compat, namespace boost::compat) for them.
>
> Thoughts? (Be sure to read the discussion in the PR as well.)

I like this idea a lot.  I want to mention that there are lots of
places currently that do a partial job of this.  One conspicuous one
is Algorithm.  There are probably lots of others.  Having one place to
get all the compatibility bits would be very welcome.

Zach