Boost Asset Stewardship Review from Ruben

From: Ruben Perez (rubenperez038_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-09-13 11:41:51

DISCLAIMER: I'm a C++ Alliance employee

Hi all,

I'm the author and current maintainer of Boost.MySQL.

I'd first like to thank both the Boost Foundation and the C++ Alliance
for their contributions and efforts, especially when done in their
free time.

On the technical side, I particularly appreciate the infrastructure
contributions the C++ Alliance has made. The Drone CI has been really
important for me even when I was a volunteer, as it's fast and
supports Windows Docker images. I also appreciate their efforts
regarding documentation, as I share the need to update Boost in this
aspect. Of course, their recent sponsorship regarding Boost.MySQL has
allowed me to develop the library much further than my otherwise
scarce free time would have allowed me.

I think the C++Al proposal is good, as it will allow other authors
like me to also benefit from infrastructure improvements like the ones
I mentioned. C++Al people are pretty technically enthusiastic, which I
also like.

The concern of letting too much of Boost's decision power in a single
organization's hands seems legit. However, the proposal seems to take
this into account, proposing several measures to mitigate the risk,
with a Steering Committee composed of respected Boost developers. I
also support adding Peter and Glen to the committee.

I also appreciate the contributions that the Boost Foundation members
have made to Boost, and would like to thank them for that.

I'd like to echo a point made by others in the mailing list throughout
this discussion and also somewhat reflected in The Boost Foundation's
proposal, about mailing list friendliness to newcomers. When I first
reached out to evaluate the potential usefulness of what would become
Boost.MySQL (https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost//2020/03/248301.php)
I received a couple of really discouraging comments, which almost made
me abandon the idea. These comments were based on the (somehow
understandable) misconception that my library was a wrapper around the
official C API. Thanks to other people's support (Richard, Chris,
Vinnie and some others, IIRC) I managed to move forward. But it could
have not been the case. As a community, we could try to improve
instances of this to make things better for newcomers.

That said, I think the C++ Alliance proposal moves in the right
direction, so I vote to ACCEPT it.

Thanks,
Ruben.