Robert, IMO framework is a collaboration of classes which aim to focus in a concrete functionality. Just think of Java Struts. This is a HUGE framework. It's purpose is solely for server based programming in enterprise sector and abstraction layer for web UI (more or less). Boost is a lib which consist of a huge collection of particular libs. All these libs are not assigned to function in some specific layer. They can be used as well in server based programming as in UI. Try to use Struts to calculate some specific mathematical formulas... You will probably fail, unless your own classes. And I don't think struts will be ever adding this functionality, because this is not the focus of it and probably will never be. Hope that helped. Ovanes On 3/26/08, Robert Dailey <rcdailey@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

My head has been spinning lately on trying to nail down the difference between a library and a framework. One of my co-workers calls Boost a framework because it is a collaboration of components, and the fact that boost is so large makes it a framework. However, boost boasts itself as a library and I'm just wondering why it is such. One definition I read for a framework is that it has no requirement to be minimal, and boost is a fairly un-minimal library. Read the link below on an interesting conversation between the differences in a library and a framework:

http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=106&thread=152104

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