Re: [Boost-users] Why is there so much co-dependency in Boost? Is there anything to be done about it?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] Why is there so much co-dependency in Boost? Is there anything to be done about it?
From: Lars Viklund (zao_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-09-04 18:10:03

On Tue, Sep 04, 2012 at 07:38:41PM +0200, Oliver Kowalke wrote:
> Am 04.09.2012 20:29, schrieb Robert Ramey:
>> a) don't use "convenience headers" which suck in all the headers in a  
>> library rather than just the one's used.
>
> I've read an advice on the mailing list that boost libraries should  
> provide a 'all.hpp' (containing all headers of the library). Is it not  
> recommended any more?

I'd say they serve two different types of crowds. There's the people
that care about dependencies and build times, and there's the people
that want to pull in everything for proof-of-concept or exploratory
coding without looking up everything constantly in documentation.

It would be a major disservice to the latter kind if there was no
boost/foo/kitchen_sink.hpp for library foo.

There's an additional reason as to why some people include all-headers,
and that's documentation that doesn't clearly mention in which headers
different functionality exists.

There's some Boost libraries that are completely implicit about which
headers contains what parts, which makes it some major guesswork to get
the bits and pieces you want included, especially if you do not have
#include-completion in your editor.

-- 
Lars Viklund | zao_at_[hidden]