I'm an experienced python developer, but unfortunately a ten-years out of practice C++ developer. For a future project I was hoping to play with Boost.python as a means of speeding up some calculations that were very tedious in python. For starters I wanted to get the "hello.cpp" demo compiling, but I am failing almost at step one. For starters in this file I am supposed to set the BOOST_ROOT: http://www.boost.org/libs/python/example/tutorial/Jamrules However I am not 100% sure that the operating system (Gentoo Linux) even installed the files in the right area. Is there a particular file that is allways going to be in the "BOOST ROOT", that way I will know for certain what to run. Next I am supposed to set up some environment variables. The instructions provided are for Windows only and say: " Make sure that the environment is set so that we can invoke the C++ compiler. With MSVC, that would mean running the Vcvars32.bat batch file. For instance:" Is there a Linux equivalent? Next I am told to use "bjam" to do the actual build. The instructions are once again very windows-centric: "bjam -sTOOLS=vc-7_1" What might be the corresponding syntax for users of GNU C++? Thanks! Sal