On 19 Aug 2025 00:11, Vinnie Falco via Boost wrote:
On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 12:28 PM Seth via Boost <boost@lists.boost.org> wrote:
I’ve also seen reasonably responsive behavior from Chris, just mostly on the things he cares about. I’ve been very surprised when Emile Cormier posted his any_completion_handler ( https://github.com/chriskohlhoff/asio/issues/1100) idea and Chris landed an improved version … in the next release or close to that. The subsequent work to that feature (and adjacent features like immediate executors, consign, channels etc) do suggest the value in keeping Asio development in one place.
Yes, there is no question that Chris maintains his library. The problem is that there is no communication. He is unresponsive to emails, unresponsive to GitHub issues, and unresponsive to pull requests. He does not participate on the mailing list. I have to underscore that I am not proposing architectural changes in this Asio2. The primary difference between the fork and the original is that the fork will have professional maintenance folks who are responsive to emails, responsive to GitHub issues, responsive to pull requests (even if it is just to close them), and participate on the mailing list. The documentation could be evolved by a professional writing team, with improved examples. We can explore changes to make this offering more appealing to folks who have turned their backs on Boost (e.g. std::error_code).
I don't quite understand this. You don't want major changes in your fork but you're still going somehow to handle PRs and issues. How is that possible, other than by just closing them as "won't fix"? You can't maintain and develop the fork without making changes, sometimes major ones. And if that's not the plan, I don't see the point. Just use standalone Asio if you want std::error_code so much.
There is also the possibility of having paid support for corporate customers, donations going to support Boost and pay for maintenance. These things are not practical in the current model where the library author proceeds to ignore everyone.
This part smells badly to me. Chris is the one who's doing the bulk of the work on Asio, and I don't think it is appropriate to profit on his work.