Hello Rob,
Taken to its logical extreme that would suggest that we should always be writing at the lowest common denominator of all participating programmers.
That seems at odds with 'best of breed' ideologies.
I agree, and that's why I advocate this approach: * Write the best code you possibly can using the best tools you have. (Boost has lots of magnificent tools.) * When your code and tools are too complex for your peers to understand, teach them what you know. My point regarding "when my peers think I write overly complex code they are always right"? It's that I have the power to change their minds by teaching them things I know that they previously didn't. Or I can learn from them how to write code that's only as complex as it needs to be. (It should be duly noted that I all too often fail to follow my own advice.) This is a very interesting topic and I've just published an article covering the Boost question we're talking about. It's called "Good Code && Good Advice", is packed with Boost usage, and you'll find it on www.skeletonsoftware.net/downloads.aspx. I guess this thread is slowly drifting off topic, but thank you for bringing it up! Cheers, Bjorn Karlsson