Re: Bringing Boost.Array up to date?

From: Marshall Clow (mclow.lists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-11-05 19:52:38

On Nov 5, 2024, at 11:42 AM, Peter Dimov via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
> I recently needed to make use of std::array in a constexpr context,
> and was rudely informed by the compilers that a lot of its features
> are only constexpr in C++17 (non-const access) or even C++20 (operator==).
> 
> This makes the standard std::array not very useful in C++14 constexpr
> code.
> 
> Ordinarily, the way we deal with such problems is to shadow the standard
> component in Boost.Compat and backport all features introduced in later
> standards. But in this specific case, we already have boost::array, and it
> makes no sense to introduce another one.
> 
> boost::array, however, looks mostly abandoned. The thinking there was
> probably that it's rendered entirely obsolete by std::array, and that no
> further development is warranted or required. But as outlined above, this
> is not the case; there's still value in maintaining boost::array and keeping
> it up to date.
> 
> I'd like to do something about that. If Array's current maintainer, Marshall,
> agrees, I'd like to take over the maintenance of Boost.Array and do the
> usual thing - port the documentation to AsciiDoc, expand the test suite,
> add the necessary BOOST_CONSTEXPR/BOOST_CXX14_CONSTEXPR
> annotations, add the features introduced by later standards such as
> deduction guides and to_array, deprecate/remove the nonstandard parts
> of boost::array that are no longer relevant in 2024, and so on.

I have no objection to this.

— Marshall