Re: Q2 2024 Transparency Report on Boost C++ Library

From: Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-07-22 21:12:57

On Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 12:50 AM Boris Kolpackov via Boost <
boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> I had a related question for while now so while at it, let me ask it:
> Where does this money come from and how long will it last? I looked
> around the C++ Alliance website for the answer but all I could find
> was that "The Alliance is currently funded by a private endowment".
>

The Alliance funding could last many decades. Long enough, that we need a
plan for transitioning the organization to others in the case of the loss
of its principals. This is not such an easy problem to be solved as my
network of contacts are around my age, and ideally the executor of any
legal entity which would outlast the current principals should be
significantly younger. Happy for any volunteers to reach out to me at
vinnie_at_cppalliance.org.

Are you (as in, Boost developers) not concerned where this non-trivial
> amounts of money come from? Equally important, are you not concerned
> about what happens if/when it runs out?

This is a concern, yes. Note however that this is not a new concern as
Boost already has exposure to the loss of volunteers and resources:

* When an author abandons a library
* When a maintainer stops working on a library
* When a release managers retiresn
* When Boost infrastructure is not maintained
* When the custodian of Boost's shared resources turns its attention to
other projects

These problems have existed and will continue to exist for the lifetime of
the project. The solution will be the same as it has always been. New
volunteers and contributions are necessary.

there seem to
> be multiple, full-time developers working on the new Boost website.
> Based on that I think it's reasonable to assume that the result will
> require a non-trivial amount of ongoing maintenance. What happens
> when/if there is no more funding for this maintenance? Are the Boost
> developers prepared to step in and do web development?
>

The new website is an ambitious project which will require non-trivial
resources over the next few years to implement, as we have many interesting
features planned with the hopes of increasing qualified participation in
the project. Once the site matures, the ongoing maintenance will be
considerably less. We chose Python/Django for its enormous popularity and
for the ease of which it is to find talented individuals who can perform
the work, whether volunteer or paid. An emphasis was placed on using
existing technologies that follow best practices.

Boost's existing website, running on the "wowbagger" server, is already an
existential risk, and essentially is unfixable. See:

https://cppalliance.org/pdf/Boost-Server-Report.pdf

What I am saying is that while the hypothetical problem of C++ Alliance
lacking funds may be a problem in the future, the current website's lack of
resources is a real problem today. My usage of the term website also
encompasses the mailing lists, which run on the same machine and get served
from the same domain.

To mitigate the risk of short-term problems with the Alliance, we have
deployed a static copy of the old website which is very cheap to maintain
and runs on modern software and services. This will be available at a
separate URL even with the new website up, allowing a grace period where
folks can experience the old site for whatever reason. Including the case
where we forgot a page or some information, and we need to refer to the old
site to update the new one.

This static duplicate of the current boost.org also serves another
function. It is a safety mechanism if the new website goes lights-out for
any reason. This way the old site can be pressed back into service. It is
true that the community will suffer a loss of aesthetics and functionality
but this is not much different than when someone abandons a library. Boost
can and will deal with such eventualities as it always does.

I realize am asking pointed questions while not really being part
> of the project (other than packaging Boost for build2), so if the
> answer is "this is none of your business", then that's fair enough.
>

I think these are fair questions. And for the health of Boost I think more
people should be asking these questions, and related questions. Of course,
volunteering time and resources would be better still :)

Thanks