From: Jens Maurer (Jens.Maurer_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-02-14 14:09:54


jeff_at_[hidden] wrote:
> Direct from the guidelines page
> (http://www.boost.org/more/lib_guide.htm)
>
> -->" Do not use libraries other than the C++ Standard Library or
> Boost."

Compression algorithms are complicated beasts. Also, they are sufficiently
low-level that I cannot see any obvious templatization being applied to it
(contrary to regular expressions). Thus, fulfilling the above requirement
would mean to slavishly re-implement a few thousand lines of code with lots
of difficult-to-test special cases. That's not the purpose of boost, and
guidelines can be changed or relaxed.

In short, I don't believe it's a problem to require an external library
for compression after carefully weighing and explicitly documenting the
pros and cons.

Jens Maurer