Boost Foundation, Boost, and the Beman Project

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-07-11 09:28:48

Hi all,

I recently brought up (by e-mail) the subject of the relationship
between the Boost Foundation and the Beman Project before the
BF board.

I expressed the opinion that, since the Boost Foundation's primary
purpose is to support Boost, the Beman Project should eventually
have its own backing entity (foundation/nonprofit), instead of the
existing Boost Foundation supporting both.

David Sankel responded, quoted Boost Foundation's mission
statement:

"The Boost Foundation’s broad C++ mission is: (a) development of high quality, expert reviewed, legally unencumbered, open-source libraries, (b) inspiring standard enhancements, and (c) advancing and disseminating software development best practices. It does this by fostering community engagement, nurturing leaders, providing necessary financial/legal support, and making directional decisions in the event of Boost community deadlock."

and helpfully pointed out that it very much doesn't say that
supporting Boost is the primary purpose of the Foundation.

And indeed, if one pays attention to the above, one would
notice that Boost only appears once, at the end, somewhat
incidentally, and as an afterthought.

Unsurprisingly, I disagree. I think that the primary purpose
of an entity named "the Boost Foundation" should be to
support Boost, and if it currently isn't, something not quite
right.

At the moment I'm not proposing anything yet; this is purely
informative. But no matter how I look at it, I see a pretty
fundamental difference of opinion, which we'll need to
deal with at some point.