Stefan Seefeld wrote:
I'm a bit confused by the listing, as you use the term "user" in quite different ways.
No, I use it in the same way throughout.
All but 1) are addressed at boost developers, i.e. people who want to build (, test, etc.) boost itself. Only 1) is concerned about users who want to use boost as external dependency to their own project.
No. Most are addressed at users of Boost. (6) is admittedly probably of interest mostly to ourselves.
To be honest, I don't quite understand 2). Why do you want to support building boost (or parts of it) as an integral part of something else ?
That's a common workflow. Your (non-Boost!) library or project keeps all of its dependencies in ext/ and "consumes" them from there using add_subdirectory from CMake. This is what boost-cmake-demo-2 shows. This is not a way to support building Boost, this is a way to support using Boost libraries as part of some user project, without needing to build and install (the entire) Boost.
Modularity and encapsulation doesn't seem to have any value to you, or does it ?
Not sure what you mean here. You ask me why do I want to support building only parts of Boost, then ask me whether modularity has any value to me. You must be using a meaning of the word "modularity" with which I am not familiar.