15 May
2010
15 May
'10
5:40 p.m.
You can still provide binaries for certain distributions. For instance, Ubuntu-8.04 comes with boost-1.34 and libstdc++.so.6. That won't change.
I think this is the best direction for solving the ABI compatibility issue. Why should a library vendor bother? The library vendor would sacrifice code quality if he strives for binary compatibility. A distributor, however, can decide to make binary compatibility priority, and keep the same boost version for a long time. So, if I need long-lasting binary compatibility, I can buy RHEL and be sure everything remains stable. But the developers of all the bundled software don't need to bother. Best regards, Isidor