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updated boost from 1_33_1 to 1_34_1
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1<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
2<html>
3  <head>
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7    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
8    <title>
9      Boost Background Information
10    </title>
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13  background-color: #FFFFFF;
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20  <body>
21    <table summary="Navigational header"
22                 border="1" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#007F7F">
23      <tr>
24        <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
25          <img src="../boost.png" alt="boost.png (6897 bytes)" width="277"
26          height="86">
27        </td>
28        <td>
29          <a href="../index.htm"><span class="c1">Home</span></a>
30
31        </td>
32        <td>
33          <a href="../libs/libraries.htm"><span class="c1">Libraries</span></a>
34        </td>
35        <td>
36          <a href="../people/people.htm"><span class="c1">People</span></a>
37        </td>
38        <td>
39
40          <a href="../more/faq.htm"><span class="c1">FAQ</span></a>
41        </td>
42        <td>
43          <a href="../more/index.htm"><span class="c1">More</span></a>
44        </td>
45      </tr>
46    </table>
47    <h1>
48
49      Boost Background Information
50    </h1>
51    <h2>
52      Why should an organization use Boost?
53    </h2>
54    <p>
55      In a word, <i><b>Productivity</b></i>. Use of high-quality libraries like
56      Boost speeds initial development, results in fewer bugs, reduces
57      reinvention-of-the-wheel, and cuts long-term maintenance costs. And since
58      Boost libraries tend to become de facto or de jure standards, many
59      programmers are already familiar with them.
60    </p>
61    <p>
62
63      Ten of the Boost libraries are included in the <a href=
64      "http://open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/library_technical_report.html">C++
65      Standard Library's TR1</a>, and so are slated for later full
66      standardization. More Boost libraries are in the pipeline for <a href=
67      "http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2005/n1810.html">TR2</a>.
68      Using Boost libraries gives an organization a head-start in adopting new
69      technologies.
70    </p>
71    <p>
72      Many organization already use programs implemented with Boost, like Adobe
73      <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html">Acrobat
74      Reader 7.0</a>.
75    </p>
76    <h2>
77      Who else is using Boost?
78    </h2>
79
80    <p>
81      See the <a href="../doc/html/who_s_using_boost_.html">Who's Using Boost
82      page</a> for a sampling. We don't know the exact numbers, but a release
83      gets around 100,000 downloads from SourceForge, and that is only one of
84      several distribution routes.
85    </p>
86    <h2>
87      What do others say about Boost?
88    </h2>
89    <p class="c2">
90      "...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library
91      projects in the world."
92    </p>
93
94    <blockquote>
95      <p>
96        -- <a href="http://www.gotw.ca/">Herb Sutter</a> and <a href=
97        "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Alexandrescu">Andrei
98        Alexandrescu</a>, <a href=
99        "http://safari.awprofessional.com/?XmlId=0321113586">C++ Coding
100        Standards</a>
101      </p>
102    </blockquote>
103
104    <p class="c2">
105      "Item 55: Familiarize yourself with Boost."
106    </p>
107    <blockquote>
108      <p>
109        -- <a href="http://www.aristeia.com/">Scott Meyers</a>, <a href=
110        "http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-321-33487-6/">Effective C++, 3rd
111        Ed.</a>
112      </p>
113
114    </blockquote>
115    <p class="c2">
116      "The obvious solution for most programmers is to use a library that
117      provides an elegant and efficient platform independent to needed services.
118      Examples are BOOST..."
119    </p>
120    <blockquote>
121      <p>
122        -- <a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/">Bjarne Stroustrup</a>,
123        <a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/abstraction.pdf">Abstraction,
124        libraries, and efficiency in C++</a>
125
126      </p>
127    </blockquote>
128    <h2>
129      How do users get support?
130    </h2>
131    <p>
132      For relatively straightforward support needs, users rely on the <a href=
133      "mailing_lists.htm">mailing lists</a>. One of the advantages of Boost is
134      the responsiveness of other users and Boost developers.
135    </p>
136    <p>
137
138      For more involved needs, <a href="links.htm#CommercialSupport">Commercial
139      Support</a> is available.
140    </p>
141    <h2>
142      What about license issues?
143    </h2>
144    <p>
145      Boost has its own <a href="license_info.html">license</a>, developed with
146      help from the Harvard Law School.&nbsp; The <a href=
147      "license_info.html">Boost license polices</a> encourage both commercial and
148      non-commercial use, and the Boost license is not related to the GPL or
149      other licenses - that are sometimes seen as business unfriendly.
150    </p>
151
152    <h2>
153      What about other intellectual property issues?
154    </h2>
155    <p>
156      The Boost libraries tend to be new, fresh, and creative designs. They are
157      not copies, clones, or derivations of proprietary libraries. Boost has a
158      firm policy to respect the IP rights of others. The development of Boost
159      libraries is publicly documented via the mailing lists and version control
160      repository. The source code has been inspected by many, many knowledgeable
161      programmers. Each Boost file has a copyright notice and license
162      information. IP issues have been reviewed by the legal teams from some of
163      the corporations which use Boost, and in some cases these lawyers have been
164      kind enough to give Boost feedback on IP issues. There are no guarantees,
165      but those factors all tend to reduce IP risk.
166    </p>
167    <h2>
168      Why would anyone give away valuable software for free?
169    </h2>
170    <p>
171
172      Businesses and other organizations often prefer to have code developed,
173      maintained, and improved in the open source community when it does not
174      contain technology specific to their application domain, because it allows
175      them to focus more development resources on their core business.
176    </p>
177    <p>
178      Individuals contribute for the technical challenge, to hone their technical
179      skills, for the sense of community, as part of their graduate school
180      programs, as a way around geographic isolation, to enhance their employment
181      opportunities, and as advertisements for their consulting services. There
182      are probably as many reasons as there are individuals. Some of the
183      apparently individual contributions come from employees of support
184      companies with contracts from businesses or other organizations who have an
185      interest in seeing that a library is well-maintained.
186    </p>
187    <h2>
188      Who pays Boost's expenses?
189    </h2>
190    <p>
191      Boost doesn't really have any expenses! All the infrastructure is
192      contributed by supporters, such as the <a href=
193      "http://www.osl.iu.edu/">Open Systems Lab</a> at Indiana University,&nbsp;
194
195      <a href="http://sourceforge.net/index.php">SourceForge</a>, <a href=
196      "http://www.boost-consulting.com/">Boost Consulting</a>, <a href=
197      "http://www.meta-comm.com/">MetaCommunications</a>, and the individuals,
198      companies, and other organizations who run the regression tests. Borland,
199      HP, Intel, and Microsoft have contributed compilers. And hundreds, or even
200      thousands, of programmers contribute their time. That's what makes Boost
201      possible.
202    </p>
203    <hr>
204    <p>
205      Revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED"
206s-format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->07 July, 2005
207<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="21138" -->
208    </p>
209
210    <p>
211      &copy; Copyright Beman Dawes 2005.
212    </p>
213    <p>
214      Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
215      accompanying file <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or copy
216      at <a href=
217      "http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
218    </p>
219  </body>
220
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