David Abrahams wrote:
I've got a first draft of the new getting started guide ready (enclosed). Comments would be appreciated.
I plan to factor it out into separate documents, e.g. one just for *nix, one just for Visual Studio, etc., which should help make it more coherent... but I need to do a small amount of tool writing before I can accomplish that without duplicating information. The source file is checked in at more/getting_started.rst
Some quick comments: Usage of "boost_1_34_0" (everywhere): - I don't know - is this something that should change in each Boost release in the getting started guide? I understand that something like this is perhaps easier to understand that e.g. "<boost root>" or $BOOST_ROOT, but it'll lead to some extra maintenance for you(?). References: - What about adding some explicit references to e.g. the Boost.Build, Boost.Jam manuals and perhaps also the Boost.Build wiki somewhere near the start of the document? "*nix (....)" usage in headers: - I'm not too fond of the usage of "*nix", especially not in headers - why not "Unix variants" or similar. Just my personal opinion, though. The structure of a Boost distribution(2): - "index.html ... a copy of www.boost.org"; sounds like it contains, well, a copy of the site (nagging, yes, I know). Building a simple Boost program (3): - "Nearly all Boost libraries are header-only" - ten that are not header-only are listed (excluding DateTime). Maybe "Most Boost libraries" would be more appropriate? - Typo (3.2) - "From your computer's Start menu, select if you are a Visual Studio 2005 user, select ..." (select ... select). - Typo(3.2) - the command prompt in the MS examples are "C:PROMPT>" instead of "C:\PROMPT>" Build directory (4.4.3 onwards): - Is the "--build-dir" option actually respected? - In the root Jamfile.v2 (and in v1) it is called "--builddir" Select a prefix directory (4.4.6): - Maybe it's just me, but "prefix" doesn't feel like a common word for selecting the install directory. Why not have "destination" or "install" directory in the header, and explain that this is selected using the "--prefix" argument? - What about --includedir and --libdir, should they also be included here, or just referenced? Toolset tags (5.1.1, 5.3, and more ...): - I believe that the generated toolset tag for e.g. msvc V.1 is actually "vc71" ... Library paths (5.1.1, 5.2): - Perhaps give the same information and hints for using /LIBPATH: (msvc) as for -L (gcc) when not auto-linking. Staging (4.4.4-5): - There's some duplication between the two paragrahs (stage target explanation) / Johan