Re: [boost] [modularization] Modularizing Boost (modularization)

Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 08:19:16 -0400 From: bdawes@acm.org To: boost@lists.boost.org Subject: Re: [boost] [modularization] Modularizing Boost (modularization)

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 6:24 PM, Stephen Kelly wrote:

...

Hi there,

my plan for modularizing and modernizing Boost was roughly this:

* Phase 0 - remove dead weight by bumping compiler feature requirements * Phase 1 - move some files around so that the modularized repos form a mostly directed graph * Phase 2 - Form some kind of 'boost core library' or 'boost feature normalization library' from the guts of existing libraries like type_traits, static_assert, config mpl and utilities. * Phase 3 - Try to port the mpl to variadic templates so that the dependency on Boost.PP is not needed when variadic templates are available.

Herb Sutter has pointed out that approximately 15 months from now all widely used compilers and their libraries will be C++11/14 compliant, modulo residual bugs. At that point C++11/14 boost (2.x?) becomes a viable option.

C++11/14 boost would have a markedly different dependency graph, since libraries would only use the boost versions of other libraries if they needed some extension not present in the standard library version.

It might be helpful to start figuring out how we can do the transition to a C++11 (and then 14) world.

I'm also interested in the concept of a C++11/14 only boost and what that would mean. I've been hoping the git migration would finish so that working on that locally would be more feasible rather than having to deal with either svn or git repos that are constantly changing. Granted, I would probably go far enough to suggest removing or deprecating libraries that are part of the standard and isolating them as much as possible while they exist.