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Merged revisions 52740,52742,52963,53164,53320-53321,53323-53324,53326,53507,53509,53710 via svnmerge from https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/website/public_html/beta ........ r52740 | danieljames | 2009-05-02 18:25:29 +0100 (Sat, 02 May 2009) | 1 line Merge from live, up to 52379. ........ r52742 | danieljames | 2009-05-02 18:33:49 +0100 (Sat, 02 May 2009) | 1 line Release 1.39 ........ r52963 | joaquin | 2009-05-13 11:42:54 +0100 (Wed, 13 May 2009) | 1 line merged [52962] from live website ........ r53164 | danieljames | 2009-05-21 22:33:28 +0100 (Thu, 21 May 2009) | 1 line Make the check for '<body' case insensitive when processing the doucmentation. ........ r53320 | danieljames | 2009-05-27 20:23:01 +0100 (Wed, 27 May 2009) | 1 line Add link to 'Die Boost C++ Bibliotheken' to bibliography. ........ r53321 | danieljames | 2009-05-27 20:23:10 +0100 (Wed, 27 May 2009) | 1 line Correct mime type for csshover.htc ........ r53323 | danieljames | 2009-05-27 20:50:45 +0100 (Wed, 27 May 2009) | 2 lines Upgrade to css hover 3 and only use it for IE 7 as it causes IE 6 to crash and isn't needed on IE 8. ........ r53324 | danieljames | 2009-05-27 20:51:26 +0100 (Wed, 27 May 2009) | 1 line Try to prevent wide content on sidebar from messing up layout on IE. ........ r53326 | danieljames | 2009-05-27 21:46:51 +0100 (Wed, 27 May 2009) | 1 line Try to deal with content overflowing in the directory element in IE6. ........ r53507 | danieljames | 2009-05-31 18:53:02 +0100 (Sun, 31 May 2009) | 1 line Missing redirect for writingdoc. ........ r53509 | danieljames | 2009-05-31 19:05:53 +0100 (Sun, 31 May 2009) | 1 line Link to the wiki on the front page. ........ r53710 | danieljames | 2009-06-07 11:32:33 +0100 (Sun, 07 Jun 2009) | 1 line Add a hook for pre-processing the extracted file from the zipfile. ........ [SVN r53714]
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8.8 KiB
HTML
194 lines
8.8 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<head>
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<title>Boost Background Information</title>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
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<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/ico" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/style/section-boost.css" />
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<!--[if IE 7]> <style type="text/css"> body { behavior: url(/style/csshover3.htc); } </style> <![endif]-->
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</head><!--
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Note: Editing website content is documented at:
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http://www.boost.org/development/website_updating.html
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-->
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<body>
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<div id="heading">
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<!--#include virtual="/common/heading.html" -->
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</div>
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<div id="body">
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<div id="body-inner">
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<div id="content">
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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 Background Information</h1>
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</div>
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<div class="section-body">
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<h2>Why should an organization use Boost?</h2>
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<p>In a word, <em>Productivity</em>. Use of high-quality
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libraries like Boost speeds initial development, results in
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fewer bugs, reduces reinvention-of-the-wheel, and cuts
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long-term maintenance costs. And since Boost libraries tend to
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become de facto or de jure standards, many programmers are
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already familiar with them.</p>
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<p>Ten of the Boost libraries are included in the <a href=
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"http://open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/library_technical_report.html"
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class="external">C++ Standard Library's TR1</a>, and so are
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slated for later full standardization. More Boost libraries are
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in the pipeline for <a href=
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"http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2005/n1810.html"
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class="external">TR2</a>. Using Boost libraries gives an
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organization a head-start in adopting new technologies.</p>
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<p>Many organization already use programs implemented with
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Boost, like Adobe <a href=
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"http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html" class=
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"external">Acrobat Reader 7.0</a>.</p>
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<h2>Who else is using Boost?</h2>
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<p>See the <a href="/users/uses.html">Who's Using Boost
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page</a> for a sampling. We don't know the exact numbers, but a
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release gets around 100,000 downloads from SourceForge, and
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that is only one of several distribution routes.</p>
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<h2>What do others say about Boost?</h2>
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<blockquote>
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<p>"...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed
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C++ library projects in the world."<br />
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— <cite><a href="http://www.gotw.ca/" class=
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"external">Herb Sutter</a> and <a href=
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Alexandrescu" class=
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"external">Andrei Alexandrescu</a>, <a href=
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"http://safari.awprofessional.com/?XmlId=0321113586" class=
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"external">C++ Coding Standards</a></cite></p>
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</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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<p>"Item 55: Familiarize yourself with Boost."<br />
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— <cite><a href="http://www.aristeia.com/" class=
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"external">Scott Meyers</a>, <a href=
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"http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-321-33487-6/" class=
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"external">Effective C++, 3rd Ed.</a></cite></p>
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</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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<p>"The obvious solution for most programmers is to use a
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library that provides an elegant and efficient platform
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independent to needed services. Examples are BOOST..."<br />
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— <cite><a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/"
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class="external">Bjarne Stroustrup</a>, <a href=
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"http://www.research.att.com/~bs/abstraction.pdf" class=
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"external">Abstraction, libraries, and efficiency in
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C++</a></cite></p>
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</blockquote>
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<h2>How do users get support?</h2>
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<p>For relatively straightforward support needs, users rely on
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the <a href="/community/groups.html">mailing lists</a>. One of
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the advantages of Boost is the responsiveness of other users
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and Boost developers.</p>
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<p>For more involved needs, <a href=
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"/support/index.html">Commercial Support</a> is available.</p>
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<h2>What about license issues?</h2>
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<p>Boost has its own <a href="license.html">license</a>,
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developed with help from the Harvard Law School. The <a href=
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"license.html">Boost license polices</a> encourage both
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commercial and non-commercial use, and the Boost license is not
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related to the GPL or other licenses - that are sometimes seen
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as business unfriendly.</p>
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<h2>What about other intellectual property issues?</h2>
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<p>The Boost libraries tend to be new, fresh, and creative
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designs. They are not copies, clones, or derivations of
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proprietary libraries. Boost has a firm policy to respect the
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IP rights of others. The development of Boost libraries is
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publicly documented via the mailing lists and version control
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repository. The source code has been inspected by many, many
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knowledgeable programmers. Each Boost file has a copyright
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notice and license information. IP issues have been reviewed by
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the legal teams from some of the corporations which use Boost,
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and in some cases these lawyers have been kind enough to give
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Boost feedback on IP issues. There are no guarantees, but those
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factors all tend to reduce IP risk.</p>
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<h2>Why would anyone give away valuable software for free?</h2>
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<p>Businesses and other organizations often prefer to have code
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developed, maintained, and improved in the open source
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community when it does not contain technology specific to their
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application domain, because it allows them to focus more
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development resources on their core business.</p>
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<p>Individuals contribute for the technical challenge, to hone
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their technical skills, for the sense of community, as part of
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their graduate school programs, as a way around geographic
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isolation, to enhance their employment opportunities, and as
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advertisements for their consulting services. There are
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probably as many reasons as there are individuals. Some of the
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apparently individual contributions come from employees of
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support companies with contracts from businesses or other
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organizations who have an interest in seeing that a library is
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well-maintained.</p>
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<h2>Who pays Boost's expenses?</h2>
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<p>Boost doesn't really have any expenses! All the
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infrastructure is contributed by supporters, such as the
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<a href="http://www.osl.iu.edu/" class="external">Open Systems
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Lab</a> at Indiana University, <a href=
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"http://sourceforge.net/" class="external">SourceForge</a>,
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<a href="http://www.boost-consulting.com/" class=
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"external">Boost Consulting</a>, <a href=
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"http://www.meta-comm.com/" class=
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"external">MetaCommunications</a>, and the individuals,
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companies, and other organizations who run the regression
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tests. Borland, HP, Intel, and Microsoft have contributed
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compilers. And hundreds, or even thousands, of programmers
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contribute their time. That's what makes Boost possible.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div id="sidebar">
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<!--#include virtual="/common/sidebar-common.html" -->
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<!--#include virtual="/common/sidebar-boost.html" -->
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</div>
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<div class="clear"></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div id="footer">
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<div id="footer-left">
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<div id="revised">
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<p>Revised $Date$</p>
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</div>
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<div id="copyright">
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<p>Copyright Beman Dawes 2005.</p>
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</div><!--#include virtual="/common/footer-license.html" -->
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</div>
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<div id="footer-right">
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<!--#include virtual="/common/footer-banners.html" -->
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</div>
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<div class="clear"></div>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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