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- <title>
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- Boost Background Information
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- <tr>
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- <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
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- <img src="../boost.png" alt="boost.png (6897 bytes)" width="277"
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- </td>
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- <td>
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- <a href="../index.htm"><span class="c1">Home</span></a>
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-
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- </td>
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- <td>
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- <a href="../libs/libraries.htm"><span class="c1">Libraries</span></a>
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- </td>
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- <td>
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- <a href="../people/people.htm"><span class="c1">People</span></a>
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- </td>
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- <td>
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-
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- <a href="../more/faq.htm"><span class="c1">FAQ</span></a>
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- </td>
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- <td>
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- <a href="../more/index.htm"><span class="c1">More</span></a>
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- </td>
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- </tr>
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- </table>
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- <h1>
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-
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- Boost Background Information
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- </h1>
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- <h2>
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- Why should an organization use Boost?
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- </h2>
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- <p>
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- In a word, <i><b>Productivity</b></i>. Use of high-quality libraries like
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- Boost speeds initial development, results in fewer bugs, reduces
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- reinvention-of-the-wheel, and cuts long-term maintenance costs. And since
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- Boost libraries tend to become de facto or de jure standards, many
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- programmers are already familiar with them.
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- </p>
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- <p>
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-
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- 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">C++
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- Standard Library's TR1</a>, and so are slated for later full
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- standardization. More Boost libraries are in the pipeline for <a href=
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- "http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2005/n1810.html">TR2</a>.
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- Using Boost libraries gives an organization a head-start in adopting new
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- technologies.
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- </p>
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- <p>
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- Many organization already use programs implemented with Boost, like Adobe
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- <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html">Acrobat
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- Reader 7.0</a>.
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- </p>
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- <h2>
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- Who else is using Boost?
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- </h2>
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-
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- <p>
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- See the <a href="../doc/html/who_s_using_boost_.html">Who's Using Boost
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- page</a> for a sampling. We don't know the exact numbers, but a release
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- gets around 100,000 downloads from SourceForge, and that is only one of
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- several distribution routes.
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- </p>
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- <h2>
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- What do others say about Boost?
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- </h2>
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- <p class="c2">
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- "...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library
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- projects in the world."
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- </p>
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-
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- <blockquote>
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- <p>
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- -- <a href="http://www.gotw.ca/">Herb Sutter</a> and <a href=
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- "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Alexandrescu">Andrei
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- Alexandrescu</a>, <a href=
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- "http://safari.awprofessional.com/?XmlId=0321113586">C++ Coding
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- Standards</a>
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- </p>
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- </blockquote>
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-
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- <p class="c2">
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- "Item 55: Familiarize yourself with Boost."
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- </p>
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- <blockquote>
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- <p>
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- -- <a href="http://www.aristeia.com/">Scott Meyers</a>, <a href=
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- "http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-321-33487-6/">Effective C++, 3rd
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- Ed.</a>
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- </p>
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-
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- </blockquote>
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- <p class="c2">
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- "The obvious solution for most programmers is to use a library that
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- provides an elegant and efficient platform independent to needed services.
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- Examples are BOOST..."
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- </p>
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- <blockquote>
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- <p>
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- -- <a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/">Bjarne Stroustrup</a>,
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- <a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/abstraction.pdf">Abstraction,
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- libraries, and efficiency in C++</a>
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-
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- </p>
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- </blockquote>
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- <h2>
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- How do users get support?
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- </h2>
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- <p>
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- For relatively straightforward support needs, users rely on the <a href=
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- "mailing_lists.htm">mailing lists</a>. One of the advantages of Boost is
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- the responsiveness of other users and Boost developers.
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- </p>
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- <p>
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-
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- For more involved needs, <a href="links.htm#CommercialSupport">Commercial
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- Support</a> is available.
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- </p>
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- <h2>
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- What about license issues?
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- </h2>
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- <p>
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- Boost has its own <a href="license_info.html">license</a>, developed with
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- help from the Harvard Law School. The <a href=
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- "license_info.html">Boost license polices</a> encourage both commercial and
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- non-commercial use, and the Boost license is not related to the GPL or
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- other licenses - that are sometimes seen as business unfriendly.
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- </p>
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-
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- <h2>
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- What about other intellectual property issues?
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- </h2>
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- <p>
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- The Boost libraries tend to be new, fresh, and creative designs. They are
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- not copies, clones, or derivations of proprietary libraries. Boost has a
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- firm policy to respect the IP rights of others. The development of Boost
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- libraries is publicly documented via the mailing lists and version control
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- repository. The source code has been inspected by many, many knowledgeable
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- programmers. Each Boost file has a copyright notice and license
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- information. IP issues have been reviewed by the legal teams from some of
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- the corporations which use Boost, and in some cases these lawyers have been
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- kind enough to give Boost feedback on IP issues. There are no guarantees,
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- but those factors all tend to reduce IP risk.
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- </p>
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- <h2>
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- Why would anyone give away valuable software for free?
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- </h2>
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- <p>
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-
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- Businesses and other organizations often prefer to have code developed,
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- maintained, and improved in the open source community when it does not
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- contain technology specific to their application domain, because it allows
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- them to focus more development resources on their core business.
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- </p>
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- <p>
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- Individuals contribute for the technical challenge, to hone their technical
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- skills, for the sense of community, as part of their graduate school
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- programs, as a way around geographic isolation, to enhance their employment
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- opportunities, and as advertisements for their consulting services. There
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- are probably as many reasons as there are individuals. Some of the
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- apparently individual contributions come from employees of support
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- companies with contracts from businesses or other organizations who have an
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- interest in seeing that a library is well-maintained.
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- </p>
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- <h2>
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- Who pays Boost's expenses?
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- </h2>
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- <p>
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- Boost doesn't really have any expenses! All the infrastructure is
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- contributed by supporters, such as the <a href=
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- "http://www.osl.iu.edu/">Open Systems Lab</a> at Indiana University,
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-
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- <a href="http://sourceforge.net/index.php">SourceForge</a>, <a href=
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- "http://www.boost-consulting.com/">Boost Consulting</a>, <a href=
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- "http://www.meta-comm.com/">MetaCommunications</a>, and the individuals,
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- companies, and other organizations who run the regression tests. Borland,
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- HP, Intel, and Microsoft have contributed compilers. And hundreds, or even
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- thousands, of programmers contribute their time. That's what makes Boost
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- possible.
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- </p>
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- <hr>
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- <p>
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- Revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED"
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-s-format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->07 July, 2005
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-<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="21138" -->
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- </p>
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-
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- <p>
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- © Copyright Beman Dawes 2005.
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- </p>
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- <p>
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- Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
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- accompanying file <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or copy
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- at <a href=
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- "http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
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- </p>
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- </body>
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-
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-</html>
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Daniel James