Re: Boost.Compat

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2023-05-19 16:08:55

Christian Mazakas wrote:
> > What "publicity issue"?
> 
> Sorry for being ambiguous here.
> 
> I meant the idea that Compat types shouldn't appear in public interfaces.

That's not quite the intent.

Types intended to appear in public interfaces don't go into Compat.

This means that string_view, span, and similar types do not go into Compat.

This rule is often unnecessary because interface types such as string_view
don't meet the other criterion, that they must match their standard
equivalents exactly. boost::core::string_view for example doesn't, because
it allows implicit conversions from and to std::string_view.

> To this end, a user can write a C++11 library using `boost::compat::span` and
> then seamlessly transition to using it with `std::span` in C++20 mode.

The user can't do this because there is no boost::compat::span. span is in Core.