8 Jul
2025
8 Jul
'25
8:32 a.m.
And the rest of the updates are backward API/ABI compatible.
ABI compatibility is a delicate matter. Yes, I agree that for some long-term project it can be helpful, but it can also limit the development of libraries a lot. We all know about std::regex and its limits due to the fact that it needs to maintain ABI compatibility.
There are lots of ways to handle ABI compatibility (Qt's d-pointer is classic) But we are not even in an API area. API is broken virtually every release. It is a huge problem for a long running project especially when you have no idea what version of Boost you are going to be linked with. I would accept at least API stability - but it does not exist. Artyom