At Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:30:49 -0500, Zachary Turner wrote:
Ok, sure. In some cases it's not possible. I guess I didn't explicitly say that because I thought it was kind of obvious but you're right, I should have clarified, or at least not emphasized *every* library. But the point was that if it's possible, it should be done. I think that it's possible in large part for almost every library which is not strictly a metaprogramming library, or which generates some runtime code. Most libraries use some element of metaprogramming, but oftentimes they are internal details and the metaprogramming-related headers can be included only from CPP files.
Like you said, minimizing inter-library dependencies isn't that impractical. My point was that I don't think minimizing inter-library dependencies is necessarily a worthy goal. We should *encourage* libraries to use other libraries, while mitigating the negative effects of these dependencies from the user's point of view.
I simply don't have time to argue that point right now, but I disagree about the worthiness of the goal. Every dependency should be an informed and conscious decision on the part of a library developer. -- Dave Abrahams Meet me at BoostCon: http://www.boostcon.com BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com