Re: [boost] [epochs] Proposal for an epoch-based organization of Boost libraries

-----Original Message-----

From: Boost On Behalf Of Joaquin M López Muñoz via Boost

Sent: 23 May 2020 10:56

To: boost@lists.boost.org

Cc: Joaquin M López Muñoz

Subject: [boost] [epochs] Proposal for an epoch-based organization of Boost libraries

Hi,

Prompted by general feelings about Boost perceived lack of modernization and internal "bloat", and

after an explicit survey on what users dislike about Boost [1], I decided to try and write a more or less

fleshed out proposal for an epoch-based organization of Boost libraries. I've extensively tested and

refined the proposal during discussions on Reddit and the Boost Slack channel, and I feel this is now

ready for presentation at the mailing list:

https://github.com/joaquintides/boost_epoch/blob/master/README.md

I hope the proposal can start a productive conversation. Looking forward to your feedback.

Your epoch ideas have merit, but some disadvantages. But I fear that (like other projects like Cmake) the BIG hurdle that we struggle to get over, is *resources*. And particularly, resources to update *all* existing libraries in any way. Boost does have a lot of dependencies, but they are there for excellent reasons. Documentation is a big part of the distribution (guilty) , but are needed by most. Tests and tests data are another area that many users rarely use, but separately them would be a big task. It is true that Boost has become very big, but Boost is only taking up space on builder's disks, not in end-users executables. If we could do something positive, it would be to make much clearer that nearly all Boost is header-only, and has no effect on the executables. The Getting Started instructions have been poor from the start, and are virtually unchanged while the Boost size has increased >10-fold. To suggest that everyone needs to build all the libraries for all the variants taking hours has become absurd when most users are only like to need a handful like system and chrono. So we could and should *sell* Boost much better. In conclusion, I don't think that we have the resources to do any useful split. So while we may regret that some avoid Boost, we must resign ourselves to continue muddling through ☹ Paul