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Boost Background Information
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<a href="../index.htm"><span class="c1">Home</span></a>
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<a href="../libs/libraries.htm"><span class="c1">Libraries</span></a>
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<a href="../people/people.htm"><span class="c1">People</span></a>
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<a href="../more/faq.htm"><span class="c1">FAQ</span></a>
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<a href="../more/index.htm"><span class="c1">More</span></a>
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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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