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      Boost Background Information
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    <h1>

      Boost Background Information
    </h1>
    <h2>
      Why should an organization use Boost?
    </h2>
    <p>
      In a word, <i><b>Productivity</b></i>. Use of high-quality libraries like
      Boost speeds initial development, results in fewer bugs, reduces
      reinvention-of-the-wheel, and cuts long-term maintenance costs. And since
      Boost libraries tend to become de facto or de jure standards, many
      programmers are already familiar with them.
    </p>
    <p>

      Ten of the Boost libraries are included in the <a href=
      "http://open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/library_technical_report.html">C++
      Standard Library's TR1</a>, and so are slated for later full
      standardization. More Boost libraries are in the pipeline for <a href=
      "http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2005/n1810.html">TR2</a>.
      Using Boost libraries gives an organization a head-start in adopting new
      technologies.
    </p>
    <p>
      Many organization already use programs implemented with Boost, like Adobe
      <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html">Acrobat
      Reader 7.0</a>.
    </p>
    <h2>
      Who else is using Boost?
    </h2>

    <p>
      See the <a href="../doc/html/who_s_using_boost_.html">Who's Using Boost
      page</a> for a sampling. We don't know the exact numbers, but a release
      gets around 100,000 downloads from SourceForge, and that is only one of
      several distribution routes.
    </p>
    <h2>
      What do others say about Boost?
    </h2>
    <p class="c2">
      "...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library
      projects in the world."
    </p>

    <blockquote>
      <p>
        -- <a href="http://www.gotw.ca/">Herb Sutter</a> and <a href=
        "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Alexandrescu">Andrei
        Alexandrescu</a>, <a href=
        "http://safari.awprofessional.com/?XmlId=0321113586">C++ Coding
        Standards</a>
      </p>
    </blockquote>

    <p class="c2">
      "Item 55: Familiarize yourself with Boost."
    </p>
    <blockquote>
      <p>
        -- <a href="http://www.aristeia.com/">Scott Meyers</a>, <a href=
        "http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-321-33487-6/">Effective C++, 3rd
        Ed.</a>
      </p>

    </blockquote>
    <p class="c2">
      "The obvious solution for most programmers is to use a library that
      provides an elegant and efficient platform independent to needed services.
      Examples are BOOST..."
    </p>
    <blockquote>
      <p>
        -- <a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/">Bjarne Stroustrup</a>,
        <a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/abstraction.pdf">Abstraction,
        libraries, and efficiency in C++</a>

      </p>
    </blockquote>
    <h2>
      How do users get support?
    </h2>
    <p>
      For relatively straightforward support needs, users rely on the <a href=
      "mailing_lists.htm">mailing lists</a>. One of the advantages of Boost is
      the responsiveness of other users and Boost developers.
    </p>
    <p>

      For more involved needs, <a href="links.htm#CommercialSupport">Commercial
      Support</a> is available.
    </p>
    <h2>
      What about license issues?
    </h2>
    <p>
      Boost has its own <a href="license_info.html">license</a>, developed with
      help from the Harvard Law School.&nbsp; The <a href=
      "license_info.html">Boost license polices</a> encourage both commercial and
      non-commercial use, and the Boost license is not related to the GPL or
      other licenses - that are sometimes seen as business unfriendly.
    </p>

    <h2>
      What about other intellectual property issues?
    </h2>
    <p>
      The Boost libraries tend to be new, fresh, and creative designs. They are
      not copies, clones, or derivations of proprietary libraries. Boost has a
      firm policy to respect the IP rights of others. The development of Boost
      libraries is publicly documented via the mailing lists and version control
      repository. The source code has been inspected by many, many knowledgeable
      programmers. Each Boost file has a copyright notice and license
      information. IP issues have been reviewed by the legal teams from some of
      the corporations which use Boost, and in some cases these lawyers have been
      kind enough to give Boost feedback on IP issues. There are no guarantees,
      but those factors all tend to reduce IP risk.
    </p>
    <h2>
      Why would anyone give away valuable software for free?
    </h2>
    <p>

      Businesses and other organizations often prefer to have code developed,
      maintained, and improved in the open source community when it does not
      contain technology specific to their application domain, because it allows
      them to focus more development resources on their core business.
    </p>
    <p>
      Individuals contribute for the technical challenge, to hone their technical
      skills, for the sense of community, as part of their graduate school
      programs, as a way around geographic isolation, to enhance their employment
      opportunities, and as advertisements for their consulting services. There
      are probably as many reasons as there are individuals. Some of the
      apparently individual contributions come from employees of support
      companies with contracts from businesses or other organizations who have an
      interest in seeing that a library is well-maintained.
    </p>
    <h2>
      Who pays Boost's expenses?
    </h2>
    <p>
      Boost doesn't really have any expenses! All the infrastructure is
      contributed by supporters, such as the <a href=
      "http://www.osl.iu.edu/">Open Systems Lab</a> at Indiana University,&nbsp;

      <a href="http://sourceforge.net/index.php">SourceForge</a>, <a href=
      "http://www.boost-consulting.com/">Boost Consulting</a>, <a href=
      "http://www.meta-comm.com/">MetaCommunications</a>, and the individuals,
      companies, and other organizations who run the regression tests. Borland,
      HP, Intel, and Microsoft have contributed compilers. And hundreds, or even
      thousands, of programmers contribute their time. That's what makes Boost
      possible.
    </p>
    <hr>
    <p>
      Revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED"
s-format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->07 July, 2005
<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="21138" -->
    </p>

    <p>
      &copy; Copyright Beman Dawes 2005.
    </p>
    <p>
      Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
      accompanying file <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or copy
      at <a href=
      "http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
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