Re: [Boost-users] Cannot build Boost

On 28 November 2010 19:33, Vladimir Prus wrote:

Ondřej Majerech wrote:

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On 27 November 2010 07:43, Vladimir Prus wrote:

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Greg Ward wrote:

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So: how do you build boost 1.45 with 1) a custom compiler

The same way as 1.44:

./bootstrap.sh edit ./project-config.jam to specify your new compiler. ./bjam toolset=whatever-version

That's excellent. I wish I'd known that before I started building Boost my way.

Can this be put into the documentation, please? Preferrably into the Getting Started guide.

This *is* in the getting started guide. It appears that you're not the first one to miss that though, which suggests that the "Simplified build from source" section should be renamed to "Build from source" section and somewhat expanded, while the current "Build from source" section should be remained "How to build from source if you have really quirky requirements" and somewhat reduced. I'll try to do that for 1.46.

I'm sorry, but the guide nowhere mentions that the Simplified Build method can be used with non-standard compiler and it also nowhere even suggests editing ./project-config.jam to suit the target environment. I think that expanding the Simplified Build part to include these things would indeed help a lot. On the other hand, I think the Build from Source If You Have Really Quirky Requirements part should also be expanded to at least mention that users are expected to use bjam and Boost.Build that are bundled in the tarball instead of using those from separate downloads. If you insist that these things already are in the documentation then please show me because I still don't believe you. Perhaps the guide assumes some deeper knowledge of the building process and that a user will be aware of the fact they can use the simple method with a little tweak to ./project-config.jam most of the times? I don't think a Getting Started guide should assume that as people who are already familiar with these things probably don't need a beginner's guide at all. I'm trying to be constructive here. And if I'm not the only to miss these bits then that indicates there's still a room for improvement. Ondra