
Sohail Somani wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: boost-bounces@lists.boost.org on behalf of Daryle Walker
I don't think Boost, are any part of it, should _require_ an install procedure. It should be possible for any user to just take the actual header and source files and use any build system s/he has.
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Sorry to interrupt but what do you mean here? Any non-trivial library of source code needs to be built.
Most non-trivial libraries do, yes.
Something sufficiently complex will be tied to a build system.
That's the point under debate; most C or C++ systems consist of a selection of header files and source files, which "just" need to be compiled and linked with suitable compiler settings. That can be done by various build systems, with a little effort, by and large. In the past, when the Boost build systems have failed in various odd ways, I've thrown together a quick Makefile for pieces that I needed. (Unfortunately the platform on which I currently do most of my work -- Solaris, using Sun's compiler and standard library -- doesn't support much of Boost. Sun's support for boost seems to be dependent on us being able to use a binary-incompatible standard library implementation, which is not viable when needing to link with third-party proprietary libraries.)
You're not making any sense to me... Are you suggesting that all of boost source should be compiled by #include directives?!
My guess is that was not the suggestion. -- James