18 Nov
2025
18 Nov
'25
8:28 p.m.
> I believe some Boost libraries become> obsolete by newer versions of C++.> For example, boost::filesystem,> Boost.CharConv, and Boost.Variant could> be considered obsolete
Cool discussion.
Yes and no. It depends a bit on what ismeant by obsolete.
One top-level goals of Boost.Charconvincluded bringing the functionalityback to legacy C++11 compilers.This is the kind of thing you mean.If newer standards have it, thenone need not necessarily turn toBoost to obtain it.
But, as mentioned in another post,some libraries offer vastly improvedperformance compared to commonoff-the-shelf implementations.Also, we recall Boost.Charconvintends to offer high performance.
Another poster mentioned in somecases a Boost preference for certainlibraries, also motivated by performance.
Simultaneously, I can see the need toimprove clarity regarding "what partsof Boost are needed for my compilerand standard?", as this is, in factconfusing.
- Christopher
On Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 07:24:08 PM GMT+1, Vinnie Falco via Boost <boost@lists.boost.org> wrote:
I believe some Boost libraries become obsolete by newer versions of C++.
For example, boost::filesystem, Boost.CharConv, and Boost.Variant could be
considered obsolete in versions C++17 and later as these facilities are in
the standard. It can be tricky to figure out what is obsolete. Is
boost::shared_ptr obsolete in C++11? Probably not since it has features not
found in the standard. Anyway, I'm not trying to figure this out for all
the libraries.
For boost.org it might be nice to let users specify the "minimum version of
C++" which they use. And they can opt in to filtering the Libraries based
on this minimum version. Someone who is using C++23 can choose not to see
libraries like Boost.Align, Boost.Assign, or Boost.Atomic.
We will need to add metadata to each library's repository to know the
maximum version.
What do you all think about this?
--
Regards,
Vinnie
Follow me on GitHub: https://github.com/vinniefalco
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