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<title>Boost Formal Review Process</title>
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<div class="section" id="intro">
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<div class="section-0">
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<div class="section-title">
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<h1>Boost Formal Review Process</h1>
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</div>
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<div class="admonition">
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<h2>Before Requesting a Formal Review</h2>
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<p><strong>Read and follow the Boost <a href=
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"/development/submissions.html">submission
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process</a>.</strong> There are at least four steps a library
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author must take before a formal review is requested.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="section-body">
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<ul class="toc">
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<li><a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Comments">What to include in Review
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Comments</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Results">Results</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Review_Manager">Notes for Review
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Managers</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Submitters">Notes for Library
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Submitters</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Maintainer">Library Maintainer's Rights and
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Responsibilities</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Wizard">Review Wizard</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Fast-Track">Fast Track Reviews</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="Introduction" id=
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"Introduction"></a>Introduction</h2>
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<p>Proposed libraries are accepted into Boost only after
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undergoing a formal review, where Boost mailing list members
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comment on their evaluation of the library.</p>
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<p>The final "accept" or "reject" decision is made by the
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<a href="#Review_Manager">Review Manager</a>, based on the
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review comments received from boost mailing list members.</p>
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<p>Boost mailing list members are encouraged to submit Formal
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Review comments:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Publicly on the mailing list.</li>
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<li>Privately to the Review Manager.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Private comments to a library submitter may be helpful to
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her or him, but won't help the Review Manager reach a decision,
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so the other forms are preferred.</p>
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<h2><a name="Comments" id="Comments"></a>What to include in
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Review Comments</h2>
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<p>Your comments may be brief or lengthy, but basically the
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Review Manager needs your evaluation of the library. If you
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identify problems along the way, please note if they are minor,
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serious, or showstoppers.</p>
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<p>The goal of a Boost library review is to improve the library
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through constructive criticism, and at the end a decision must
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be made: is the library good enough at this point to accept
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into Boost? If not, we hope to have provided enough
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constructive criticism for it to be improved and accepted at a
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later time. The Serialization library is a good example of how
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constructive criticism resulted in revisions resulting in an
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excellent library that was accepted in its second review.</p>
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<p>Here are some questions you might want to answer in your
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review:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>What is your evaluation of the design?</li>
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<li>What is your evaluation of the implementation?</li>
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<li>What is your evaluation of the documentation?</li>
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<li>What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of
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the library?</li>
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<li>Did you try to use the library? With what compiler? Did
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you have any problems?</li>
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<li>How much effort did you put into your evaluation? A
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glance? A quick reading? In-depth study?</li>
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<li>Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain?</li>
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</ul>
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<p>And finally, every review should answer this question:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost
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library? Be sure to say this explicitly so that your other
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comments don't obscure your overall opinion.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Many reviews include questions for library authors. Authors
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are interested in defending their library against your
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criticisms; otherwise they would not have brought their library
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up for review. If you don't get a response to your question
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quickly, be patient; if it takes too long or you don't get an
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answer you feel is sufficient, ask again or try to rephrase the
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question. Do remember that English is not the native language
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for many Boosters, and that can cause misunderstandings.</p>
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<p>E-mail is a poor communication medium, and even if messages
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rarely get lost in transmission, they often get drowned in the
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deluge of other messages. Don't assume that an unanswered
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message means you're being ignored. Given constructively,
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criticism will be taken better and have more positive effects,
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and you'll get the answers you want.</p>
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<h2><a name="Results" id="Results"></a>Results</h2>
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<p>At the conclusion of the comment period, the Review Manager
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will post a message to the mailing list saying if the library
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has been accepted or rejected. A rationale is also helpful, but
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its extent is up to the Review Manager. If there are
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suggestions, or conditions that must be met before final
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inclusion, they should be stated.</p>
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<h2><a name="Review_Manager" id="Review_Manager"></a>Notes for
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Review Managers</h2>
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<p>Before a library can be scheduled for formal review, an
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active boost member not connected with the library submission
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must volunteer to be the "Review Manager" for the library.</p>
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<p>The Review Manager:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Checks the submission to make sure it really is complete
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enough to warrant formal review. See the <a href=
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"/development/requirements.html">Boost Library Requirements
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and Guidelines</a>. If necessary, work with the submitter to
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verify the code compiles and runs correctly on several
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compilers and platforms.</li>
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<li>Finalizes the schedule with the <a href=
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"#Wizard"></a>Review Wizard and the submitter.</li>
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<li>Posts a notice of the review schedule on both the regular
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<strong><a href="mailto:boost@lists.boost.org" class=
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"external">boost mailing list</a></strong> and the
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<strong><a href="mailto:boost-announce@lists.boost.org"
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class="external">boost-announce</a> mailing list</strong>.
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<ul>
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<li>The notice should include a brief description of the
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library and what it does, to let readers know if the
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library is one they are interested in reviewing.</li>
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<li>If the library is known to fail with certain
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compilers, please mention them in the review notice so
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reviewers with those compilers won't waste time
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diagnosing known problems.</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>Inspects the Boost <a href=
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"/doc/libs/release/libs/libraries.htm">library catalogue</a>
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for libraries which may interact with the new submission.
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These potential interactions should be pointed out in the
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review announcement, and the author(s) of these libraries
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should be privately notified and urged to participate in the
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review.</li>
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<li>Urges people to do reviews if they aren't
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forthcoming.</li>
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<li>Follows review discussions regarding the library,
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moderating or answering questions as needed.</li>
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<li>Asks the <a href="#Wizard">review wizard</a> for
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permission to extend the review schedule if it appears that
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too few reviews will be submitted during the review
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period.</li>
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<li>Decides if there is consensus to accept the library, and
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if there are any conditions attached.</li>
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<li>Posts a notice of the <a href="#Results">review
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results</a> on the regular <strong><a href=
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"mailto:boost@lists.boost.org">boost</a></strong> mailing
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list, the <strong><a href=
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"mailto:boost-users@lists.boost.org">boost-users</a></strong>
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mailing list, and the <strong><a href=
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"mailto:boost-announce@lists.boost.org">boost-announce</a></strong>
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mailing list.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>In other words, it is the Review Manager's responsibility to
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make sure the review process works smoothly.</p>
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<h2><a name="Submitters" id="Submitters"></a>Notes for Library
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Submitters</h2>
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<p>See <a href="/development/submissions.html">Submission
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Process</a> for a description of the steps a library developer
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goes through to get a library accepted by Boost.</p>
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<p>A proposed library should remain stable during the review
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period; it will just confuse and irritate reviewers if there
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are numerous changes. It is, however, useful to upload fixes
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for serious bugs right away, particularly those which prevent
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reviewers from fully evaluating the library. Post a notice of
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such fixes on the mailing list.</p>
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<p>Library improvements suggested by reviewers should normally
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be held until after the completion of review period. If the
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suggested changes might affect reviewer's judgments, post a
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notice of the pending change on the mailing list.</p>
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<h2><a name="Maintainer" id="Maintainer"></a>Library
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Maintainer's Rights and Responsibilities</h2>
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<p>By submitting a library to boost, you accept responsibility
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for maintaining your library or finding a qualified volunteer
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to serve as maintainer. You must be willing to put your library
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and documentation under a Boost-compatible license.</p>
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<p>You will be expected to respond to reasonable bug reports
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and questions in a timely manner and to participate as needed
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in discussions of your library on the boost mailing lists.</p>
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<p>You are free to change your library in any way you wish, and
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you are encouraged to actively make improvements. However, peer
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review is an important part of the Boost process and as such
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you are also encouraged to get feedback from the boost
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community before making substantial changes to the interface of
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an accepted library.</p>
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<p>If at some point you no longer wish to serve as maintainer
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of your library, it is your responsibility to make this known
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to the boost community and to find another individual to take
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your place.</p>
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<h2><a name="Wizard" id="Wizard"></a>Review Wizard</h2>
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<p>The Review Wizard coordinates the formal review
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schedule:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Maintains a list of review manager volunteers, in the
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form of a queue, so that volunteers who least recently
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managed reviews become the prime candidates for upcoming
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reviews.</li>
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<li>When a formal review is requested for a library:
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<ul>
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<li>Assign a review manager and suggests a schedule,
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after checking (via private email) availability of the
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volunteers at the top of review manager queue.</li>
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<li>Finalize the schedule, once the review manager
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verifies the library is actually ready for review.</li>
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<li>Resolve schedule slips or other issues with review
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managers and submitters.</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>Maintains a schedule of both past and pending reviews, in
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the form of the <a href="review_schedule.html">Review
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Schedule</a> web page.</li>
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<li>Resolves questions from review managers and library
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submitters, who sometimes want a third opinion on questions
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such as "Should we extend the review period because
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...?"</li>
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<li>Monitors the general review process, and makes minor
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adjustments as needed, or queries the list about possible
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major adjustments.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>The role of Boost Review Wizard is currently played by John
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Phillips (johnphillipsithaca at gmail dot com) and Ronald
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Garcia (rxg at cs dot ubc dot ca).</p>
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<h2><a name="Fast-Track" id="Fast-Track"></a>Fast Track
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Reviews</h2>
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<p>To qualify for fast track review:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>The component must be small.</li>
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<li>The technique must be already in use in Boost libraries
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and the new component provides a common implementation.</li>
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<li>A full Boost-conformant implementation is available in
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the sandbox.</li>
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<li>The Review Wizard determines that the proposal qualifies
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for fast track review.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Procedure:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>The Boost Review Wizard posts a review announcement to
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the main Boost developer's list. The review period will
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normally last for 5 days. No two fast track reviews will run
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in parallel. Fast track reviews may run during full reviews,
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though generally this is to be avoided.</li>
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<li>After the review period ends, the submitter will post a
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review summary containing proposed changes to the reviewed
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implementation.</li>
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<li>The Review Wizard will accept or reject the proposed
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library and proposed changes.</li>
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<li>After applying the proposed changes, the component is
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checked into the repository like any other library.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Revised $Date$</p>
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<p>Copyright Beman Dawes, 2000.</p>
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