- What is your evaluation of the design?
The design is straightforward and I find it nice, with some exceptions: - BOOST_ARCHITECTURE_* is too long (BOOST_ARCH_* is better) - BOOST_LANGUAGE_* is too long (BOOST_LANG_* is better) - BOOST_CXX would be better if called BOOST_COMPILER or BOOST_COMP - There has to be some macro for compilers that do emulation (for example Intel, PathScale etc appear also as gcc). - I do not like the fact that all macros are defined with a 0 when the compiler/arch/whatever is non-existant. I prefer to do # ifdef BOOST_CXX_GNU ... # endif rather than # if BOOST_CXX_GNU ... # endif - BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER allows only 3 numbers. I don't think that this is the case for all compilers/libraries. - There are some platforms that have unique features (for example Cray machines, IBM BlueGene etc). A BOOST_PLATFORM_* macro would be nice.
- What is your evaluation of the implementation?
Including one file includes pretty much everything. It would be more straightforward if everything was in one file (for example merge everything in architecture/ in architecture.h). This also solves the issue of defining macros for things that don't exist.
- What is your evaluation of the documentation?
No considerable problems with the documentation. Maybe it should be mentioned what the library supports.
- What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library?
I already have something similar in a lot of my codes. I would gladly remove them and use predef - especially if it detects also platforms.
- Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did you have any problems?
Yes, PathScale is recognized as both gcc and pathscale.
- How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A glance? A quick reading? In-depth study?
A quick reading of the documentation and the code. I ran a small test case.
- Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain?
Yes.
- Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library?
I think that it should be ACCEPTED with the requirement that all issues have been resolved; especially the compiler recognition.