* David Abrahams <dave@boost-consulting.com> [2004-12-24 13:28]:
Alan Gutierrez wrote:
Q - 2) Yes.
If the project is to develop a GUI library using modern C++, then Boost is the right place. Boost has the community. Boost has the knowledge.
Developing a GUI library is a complex undertaking. Startging out with a new community slows things down considerably.
Building a community takes time. Establishing mailing lists takes time. Setting up a web site takes time. Choosing a name takes time.
Upon success of the project, it is likely to need a separate umberella, but until then, building a community to support a project so complex, to me, is far more daunting than the software itself.
I don't know if this is what you're suggesting, but I can't overemphasize how odious I find the idea of capitalizing on Boost's ready-made community, knowledge, and mailing lists, only to take the successful project away later and run it under "a separate umbrella."
By Jove, No! I do not believe that a project of this sort, upon success, could be severed from its community. Please, don't think that I was suggesting that a Boost GUI would survive without depth of knowledge, and collective wisdom of the Boost contriubtors. For me to suggest such a thing, is not only odious, it is down-right assinine. I know where you are coming from. I ain't one of those. I'm imagining a project like this will create artifacts, like a froms library, or an XML + CSS renderer, or a vector graphics library, that would attract end users who are not at all familiar with the finer points of C++ programming. A GUI library would put screenshots on the Boost web site for the first time, and screen shots attract all sorts of inquieries. I phrased my post to attempt to address, and raise, the concerns of those who don't want to answer, "how do I put a check mark next to a menu item?", three times a week. If there there a couple screen shots of a versitile boost::grid on the Boost web site, you could bank postings that were no more than "I don't know C++, but tell me how to to that!" I want to see this project develop under Boost, because I think that it would generate an excellent GUI library implementation. I am hoping that the project is not forsaken because it is too broad in scope, since that would invite a new organization to form under the misconception that a GUI library has a necessarily huge code base. The Boost community, I suspect, is going to be particular about keeping the implementation lean. I imagine "a separate umberella", Boost branded and managed, to handle a new set of end users who arrive in response to a Boost GUI, who are not C++ programmers, but are compelled by what they see to employ C++ in their projects. With the Boost Python in place, plus a Boost GUI, Boost might get traffic that is not at all C++ related. I'd hate to see that shut Boost GUI down, or send it off to browner pastures. -- Alan Gutierrez - alan@engrm.com