Re: Using Boost as a Library Dependency

From: Jason Winnebeck (yg-boost-users_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-08-11 21:34:50

Rene Rivera wrote:
> So you might be better off just telling users that they need to have some 
> minimum Boost version and leave it at that. Most developers are smart enough 
> to go get the Boost source and configure their compiler to know about it, on 
> their own.

OK so what does "on their own" mean.

Because Boost headers include themselves with <boost/whatever.hpp> boost 
MUST be in the compiler include path.  That means it must be installed 
for the user's compiler path somehow.  On Linux there is /usr/include 
which is OK to install stuff to but what about on Windows?  For mingw32 
there is no user include directory.

One thing I could do is expect the user to put the boost directory in 
some environment variable like BOOST_DIR or whatever, for mingw and 
gcc/linux.  If it's defined it will add a -IBOOST_DIR, otherwise it will 
assume it's in the standard compiler include path somehow (which on 
Linux will include /usr/include).

What about MSVC?  MSVC has an option to add directories into the 
compiler's include path.  I could ask them to put that there, but one 
person in a chat channel said they wouldn't like that.  Well I'm sure 
they wouldn't like me copying mini-boost to their VC\include so I'm not 
sure what to ask of them.

If I don't copy files into VC\include or have them add the Boost to 
their path in non-project options, the only other solution I have is to 
make some sort of script system to replace the path with Boost in all of 
my 20 or so vcproj files for both debug and release modes, something I 
REALLY do not want to do, partly because I see it as a hack, and partly 
because it would just screw up my CVS having non-workable MSVC project 
files around.

Here is ideally what I want:  My boost is simple boost 1.30 unmodifed 
whatsoever but just the headers I need.  If they don't have Boost at all 
and don't care about using Boost directly they can install my 100k or so 
  mini-Boost files.

If they are willing to download a 10 meg Boost lib, or have the full 
Boost, I would like them to use that.  My Boost is entirely unmodified 
and since my lib is open source I encourage them to compile my lib with 
the latest versions of the dependencies.  I'd love nothing more than to 
see people willing to download the 10meg Boost for my 300k library and 
delete my mini-Boost.

Thanks for your comments thus far, they have been the most helpful of 
any forum and chat channel so far.

Jason Winnebeck