From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-08-02 07:01:52
On 01/08/2024 23:42, Robert Ramey via Boost wrote:
> Regardless, I see the purpose and goals of Boost significantly changing
> or Boost dying. Consider this my modest tribute to a life well lived.
The way I'd look at it Robert is life is change, and something changing
significantly means it ain't dead yet.
I got some negative comments for saying this last time, but I'll say it
again - the proportion of the active users here who personally knew the
original set of active users has become a minority. That is a sign of
vitality - we are being replaced. I, like you, have had considerable
interactions with both sets over the years. Both sets have positives,
but both have negatives.
Quite a few appear to be yearning for a third option which isn't either
of the current two on the menu before us. Unfortunately, politics rarely
presents ideal options. You get two options most people don't much like,
and the choices are A, or B, or vote for neither.
The C++ Alliance choice is very much a put your eggs in one basket in
exchange for proactive funding of dev work until the money runs out. The
Boost Foundation choice is to continue the benign and sometimes not so
benign neglect of dev work and the developers themselves.
So long as the source code remains Boost licensed, many will feel it
doesn't matter which path is chosen. A fork and a new website could
always be done if whomever owns the supporting IP got into trouble. So I
suspect most will choose to sit on the fence and see how things play out.
The Alliance choice thanks to the direct funding of devs will always
have far more energy and bodies to apply to problems. They will choose
the problems which match their choice of direction however. There will
be an actual direction now for better or for worse.
I honestly don't know which is better. One has strength and vitality but
it's brittle, the other is continue to meander aimlessly. I suspect the
former has less chance of "Boost dying" in the short term, but who knows
longer term.
I will say this: the future is determined by the young and energetic,
and that's ain't us no more. So I guess whatever they think is best.
Niall