on Wed Oct 28 2009, Julian Bangert <jbangert-AT-acm.org> wrote:
Hello,
yesterday I tried to download the boostpro binaries for windows and I had to download over a gigabyte to get all configurations for VS 2008. Sadly the version also was outdated
We've finally released a 1.40 installer today. I don't expect to see a delay like this one again; sorry for the wait.
and in general not that great ( e.g. Installer quite bad to handle
Specifically?
and you have to register to download ) .
That's not a huge problem is it?
So I decided to build from source and package it for a few friends who also needed these binaries. I managed to compress boost_1_40 ( no source except headers, no python AFAIK , but everything else you get with a standard build ) from over 900MB down to 37MB by using 7z.
We ship .zip files over the wire. Everything that the installer can install, including all variants of all libraries for 3 different compilers, tools, and source, for 1.40.0 comes to 360M. I know 7zip does better, but it's not an order of magnitude.
I uploaded it here https://obliviononline.com/pub/boost/boost_1_40_0.7z . Should boost use this form of releasing binaries in the future for windows ?
That's not a bad idea. Of course, if we could integrate 7(un-)zip into our installer, that too would keep the download size way down.
Alternatively, you could endorse this form, like boostpro is endorsed right now and I could host it on google code, etc . An easy to set up ( just unzip this file ) binary distribution would make compiling boost-dependent software much easier. I would be willing to distribute future releases compatible with VS 2005 and 2008 in this form.
I'm willing to reference anything in the Boost getting started guide that will be provided *reliably*. -- Dave Abrahams Meet me at BoostCon: http://www.boostcon.com BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com