Re: [litwindow-users] General question to all of you: boost library?

[Jake S. <ja...@za...>]

Hajo Kirchhoff wrote:

>
> My questions:
>
> ? Do you know the boost library?

Yes

> ? Do you think downloading and installing another library is a major
> obstacle?

Not a big obstacle for anyone who is actually interested.

> ? Should a Lit Window Library distribution include boost, even if it
> will increase in size by a couple of MB.

I think to help the spread and acceptance of Lit, everything should be
done to make the installation as painless and easy as possible - this
would apply to both the development version and the user version.
wxWidgets is a good example - it gives you everything you need in one
install

> ? Should a Lit Window Library distribution include only those parts of
> boost that it needs rather than the entire boost library?

This is a bit trickier, but I don't think disk space is really an issue
any more. I think that a development version should include the entire
boost library.

> ? Should a binary - prebuild version for the Lit Window Library -
> including Boost binaries - be available? If so, for what compilers?

Yes, this will help people that just want the power of the library to
start working straight away (this would be the 'user' version I was
referring to above). I think that a windows compiler (msvc 7 or .net), a
linux compiler (gcc) and a mac compiler (i don't know what - wxWidget
boys will know) would be best. Yes there are plenty of others but these
seem to be the ones that crop up the most - I'm sure that eventually
versions for more compilers will appear.

>
> Finally I'd like to phase out support for MSVC version 6. The Lit
> Window Library requires templates and it is getting increasingly
> difficult to work around the MSVC 6 limitations.

I think that this is a good idea. Choose your compilers from above and
stick with them. If a compiler has limitations that hamper the forward
progression of the library then I think they need to be ignored. This
library is trying to make some massive changes to the way gui's are
constructed and maintained - this is something that has never really
gained any attention, yet it is one of the main ways we interact with
computers! I think what you are trying to do here is too important to
worry about backward compatibility with an old compiler! Not only that
this library combined with wxWidgets and Boost, people have been
dreaming about this for ......... well just about ever!

jake :)