Eric Niebler wrote:
FWIW, I have the interest and the ability to write Boost.Unicode. What I lack is time. Anybody with a vested interest in C++ and Unicode should consider hiring Boost Consulting. *nudge, nudge* :-)
This a big problem we have to do something about somehow. There are a lot of rather big libraries that takes so much time to develop, that it is unrealistic that people can do them in their spare-time. (unicode, xml, database seems to be the most needed right now) OTOH, we have lot's of gifted people that could take on development if given money. For the benefit of the whole C++ community, we should try to organize some kind of public money-gathering where companies can sign up to support the development of these very important libraries. I imagine that many companies would be willing to pay, say 100 USD, to support eg. a unicode library. That is sufficiently low for me to be able to persuade my boos, for example. If we have some kind of estimate of how expensive it would be to develop the library, it might turn out that 100-200 willing companies would be enough fully fund the initial development. The website could show then show a bar indicating how close to funding we where. Any thoughts? -Thorsten