Re: [Boost-users] Getting started with Boost: what did you need to know?

From: Steve Byan (smb_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-01-30 19:53:12

On Jan 30, 2006, at 5:31 PM, David Abrahams wrote:

> Steve Byan <smb_at_[hidden]> writes:
>
>> On Jan 30, 2006, at 11:17 AM, David Abrahams wrote:
>>
>>> What do you wish someone had
>>> explained to you?
>>
>> It would be nice to update the installation documentation to point
>> out that at least the latest distribution includes bjam, so one
>> doesn't need to download it separately,
>
> If you mean the latest release of Boost, then it has always included
> the bjam sources, but has never included a bjam executable.  I think
> it's pretty clear from the docs that the sources for bjam are part of
> the Boost release, isn't it?

Not to me :-)

> The need to build a tool just to be able
> to build boost was seen as anathema to many people (different
> programming cultures have different needs), so the Getting Started
> guide strongly encouraged downloading a prebuilt bjam executable.

I didn't want to depend on a pre-built executable in my project, so I  
downloaded the source rather than a pre-built executable, built and  
installed bjam, and then discovered that it was already included in  
the Boost distribution and had a pre-packaged "build bjam" configure  
script, and moreover that the makefiles auto-generated by the  
configure script use the absolute path to the built bjam rather than  
the one in my path. This was a surprise to me; maybe I missed  
something in the Getting Started.

> If you're talking about some distribution of Boost packaged for
> installation on, say, Debian or RedHat, then those are not prepared by
> the Boost developers and historically we have taken no responsibility
> for their contents.

No, no, I was just surprised that the bjam source was part of the  
Boost distribution and that the configure-generated makefile did not  
make use of any bjam in my path but instead hard-coded the path to  
the executable built out of the distribution.

> That actually *ought* to be made clear in our
> docs and we ought to coordinate with the maintainers of those distros
> to make sure there are appropriate instructions for their users on our
> website.  I'll definitely mention that in my talk.
>
>> and that the config script in at least the latest distribution will
>> build bjam and create makefiles which will invoke the built bjam
>> executable to build and install Boost.
>
> Doc patches are always welcome.  My improvements will probably come in
> the form of an article.

I'll look forward to it.
>
> I'll certainly mention in my talk that there's a configure script for
> those who are comfortable with
>
>   ./configure && make && make install
>
> Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you for your work on Boost.

Regards,
-Steve
--------
Steve Byan <smb_at_[hidden]>
Software Architect
Egenera, Inc.
165 Forest Street
Marlboro, MA 01752
[phone]