On 3/24/2010 2:57 PM, Emil Dotchevski wrote:
On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Edward Diener<eldiener@tropicsoft.com> wrote:
That's why I am suggesting that Boost create some sort of policy so that maintenance of an actively used Boost library be transferred to others whenever the original library author(s) no longer wish to maintain the library.
Why do we need an official policy if someone has to volunteer anyway? It's not like there's an army of volunteers and we have to be careful to pick the right candidate. :)
Because there are libraries of which questions are asked, bug reports are written, and suggestions are made which get absolutely no response from the person who is the author/maintainer of the library. If none of the Boost leaders pay any attention to this situation then the feeling by end-users that a library is not really being supported will continue and people will stop using that library. If Boost had some sort of policy by which authors/maintainers of a library, who are no longer paying any attention to it in response to Boost users, get relieved of the responsibility of supporting the library and someone else is chosen to maintain it instead, it would be good for the end-users and for Boost developers as well. Of course this would mean that whatever "rights" once a library is submitted to Boost ( I am not a legal expert ) which the author of a Boost library retains can be removed if the author does not support the library any longer, and that this is part of Boost policy.