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<title>Boost Discussion Policy</title>
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<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><img src="../boost.png" alt=
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"boost.png (6897 bytes)" width="277" height="86"></td>
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<td><a href="../index.htm"><font face="Arial" color=
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"#FFFFFF"><big>Home</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="../libs/libraries.htm"><font face="Arial" color=
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"#FFFFFF"><big>Libraries</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="../people/people.htm"><font face="Arial" color=
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"#FFFFFF"><big>People</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="faq.htm"><font face="Arial" color=
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"#FFFFFF"><big>FAQ</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="index.htm"><font face="Arial" color=
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"#FFFFFF"><big>More</big></font></a></td>
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</table>
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<h1>Boost Discussion Policy</h1>
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<p>Email discussion is the tie that binds boost members together into a
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community. If the discussion is stimulating and effective, the community
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thrives. If the discussion degenerates into name calling and ill will, the
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community withers and dies.</p>
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<h2>Contents</h2>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="#acceptable">Acceptable Topics</a></dt>
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<dt><a href="#unacceptable">Unacceptable Topics</a></dt>
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<dt><a href="#effective">Effective Posting</a></dt>
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<dt><a href="#behavior">Prohibited Behavior</a></dt>
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<dt><a href="#culture">Culture</a></dt>
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<dt><a href="#lib_names">Library Names</a></dt>
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</dl>
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<h2><a name="acceptable" id="acceptable"></a>Acceptable topics</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Queries to determine interest in a possible library submission.</li>
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<li>Technical discussions about a proposed or existing library, including
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bug reports and requests for help.</li>
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<li>Formal Reviews of proposed libraries.</li>
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<li>Reports of user experiences with Boost libraries.</li>
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<li>Boost administration or policies.</li>
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<li>Compiler specific workarounds as applied to Boost libraries.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Other topics related to boost development may be acceptable, at the
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discretion of moderators. If unsure, go ahead and post. The moderators will
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let you know.</p>
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<h2><a name="unacceptable" id="unacceptable"></a>Unacceptable Topics</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Advertisements for commercial products.</li>
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<li>Requests for help getting non-boost code to compile with your
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compiler. Try the comp.lang.c++.moderated newsgroup instead.</li>
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<li>Requests for help interpreting the C++ standard. Try the comp.std.c++
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newsgroup instead.</li>
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<li>Job offers.</li>
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<li>Requests for solutions to homework assignments.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="effective" id="effective"></a>Effective Posting</h2>
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<p>Most Boost mailing lists host a great deal of traffic, so your post is
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usually competing for attention with many other communications. This
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section describes how to make sure it has the desired impact.</p>
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<h3>Well-Crafted Posting is Worth the Effort</h3>
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<p>Don't forget, you're a single writer but there are many readers, and you
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want them to stay interested in what you're saying. Saving your readers a
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little time and effort is usually worth the extra time you spend when
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writing a message. Also, boost discussions are saved for posterity, as
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rationales and history of the work we do. A post's usefulness in the future
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is determined by its readability.</p>
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<h3>Put the Library Name in the Subject Line</h3>
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<p>When your post is related to a particular Boost library, it's helpful to
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put the library name in square brackets at the beginning of the subject
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line, e.g.</p>
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<blockquote>
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Subject: [Regex] Why doesn't this pattern match?
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</blockquote>The Boost developers' list is a high-volume mailing list, and
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most maintainers don't have time to read every message. A tag on the
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subject line will help ensure the right people see your post.
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<p><a name="tabs" id="tabs"></a></p>
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<h3>Don't Use Tabs</h3>If you use tabs to indent your source code, convert
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them to spaces before inserting the code in a posting. Something in the
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processing chain usually strips all the indentation and leaves a mess
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behind.
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<p><a name="longlines" id="longlines"></a></p>
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<h3>Limit Line Length</h3>If you put source code in your postings and your
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mailer wraps long lines automatically, either keep the code narrow or
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insert the code as an (inline, if possible) attachment. That will help
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ensure others can read what you've posted.
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<p><a name="quoting" id="quoting"></a></p>
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<h3>Don't Overquote</h3>Please <b>prune extraneous quoted text</b> from
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replies so that only the relevant parts are included. Some people have to
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pay for, or wait for, each byte that they download from the list. More
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importantly, it will save time and make your post more valuable when
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readers do not have to find out which exact part of a previous message you
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are responding to.
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<h3>Use a Readable Quotation Style</h3>
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<p>A common and very useful approach is to cite the small fractions of the
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message you are actually responding to and to put your response directly
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beneath each citation, with a blank line separating them for
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readability:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<pre>
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<i>Person-you're-replying-to</i> wrote:
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> Some part of a paragraph that you wish to reply to goes
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> here; there may be several lines.
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Your response to that part of the message goes here. There may,
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of course, be several lines.
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> The second part of the paragraph that is relevant to your
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> reply goes here; agiain there may be several lines.
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Your response to the second part of the message goes here.
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...
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</pre>
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</blockquote>For more information about effective use of quotation in
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posts, see <a href="http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html">this
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helpful guide</a>.
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<h3>Keep the Formatting of Quotations Consistent</h3>
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<p>Some email and news clients use poor word wrapping algorithms that leave
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successive lines from the same quotation with differing numbers of leading
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"<tt>></tt>" characters. <b>Microsoft Outlook</b> and <b>Outlook
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Express</b>, and some web clients, are especially bad about this. If your
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client offends in this way, please take the effort to clean up the mess it
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makes in quoted text. Remember, even if you didn't write the original text,
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it's <i>your</i> posting; whether you get your point across depends on its
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readability.</p>
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<p>The Microsoft clients also create an unusually verbose header at the
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beginning of the original message text and leave the cursor at the
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beginning of the message, which encourages users to write their replies
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before all of the quoted text rather than putting the reply in context.
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Fortunately, Dominic Jain has written a utility that fixes all of these
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problems automatically: <a href=
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"http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/">Outlook
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Quotefix</a> for Outlook Users and <a href=
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"http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/">OE QuoteFix</a> for
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users of Outlook Express.</p>
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<h3>Summarizing and Referring to Earlier Messages</h3>
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<p>A summary of the foregoing thread is only needed after a long
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discussion, especially when the topic is drifting or a result has been
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achieved in a discussion. The mail system will do the tracking that is
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needed to enable mail readers to display message threads (and every decent
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mail reader supports that).</p>
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<p>If you ever have to refer to single message earlier in a thread or in a
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different thread then you can use a URL to the <a href=
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"mailing_lists.htm#archive">message archives</a>. To help to keep those
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URLs short, you can use <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com">tinyurl.com</a>.
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Citing the relevant portion of a message you link to is often helpful (if
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the citation is small).</p>
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<h3>Maintain the Integrity of Discussion Threads</h3>
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<p><b>When starting a new topic, always send a fresh message</b>, rather
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than beginning a reply to some other message and replacing the subject and
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body. Many mailers are able to detect the thread you started with and will
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show the new message as part of the original thread, which probably isn't
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what you intended. Follow this guideline for your own sake as well as for
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others'. Often, people scanning for relevant messages will decide they're
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done with a topic and hide or kill the entire thread: your message will be
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missed, and you won't get the response you're looking for.</p>
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<p>By the same token, <b>When replying to an existing message, use your
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mailer's "Reply" function</b>, so that the reply shows up as part of the
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same discussion thread.</p>
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<p><b>Do not reply to digests</b> if you are a digest delivery subscriber.
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Your reply will not be properly threaded and will probably have the wrong
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subject line. Instead, you can reply through the <a href=
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"http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel">GMane web
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interface</a>.</p>
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<h3>Keep The Size of Your Posting Manageable</h3>
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<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and attachment
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size to a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is adjusted from
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time-to-time by the moderators. This limit is a courtesy to those who rely
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on dial-up Internet access.</p>
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<h2><a name="behavior" id="behavior"></a>Prohibited Behavior</h2>
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<p>Prohibited behavior will not be tolerated. The moderators will ban
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postings by abusers.</p>
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<h3>Flame wars</h3>
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<p>Personal insults, argument for the sake of argument, and all the other
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behaviors which fall into the "flame war" category are prohibited.
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Discussions should focus on technical arguments, not the personality traits
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or motives of participants.</p>
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<h3>Third-party attacks</h3>
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<p>Attacks on third parties such as software vendors, hardware vendors, or
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any other organizations, are prohibited. Boost exists to unite and serve
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the entire C++ community, not to disparage the work of others.</p>
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<p>Does this mean that we ban the occasional complaint or wry remark about
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a troublesome compiler? No, but be wary of overdoing it.</p>
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<h3>Off-topic posts</h3>
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<p>Discussions which stray from the acceptable topics are strongly
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discouraged. While off-topic posts are often well meaning and not as
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individually corrosive as other abuses, cumulatively the distraction
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damages the effectiveness of discussion.</p>
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<h2><a name="culture" id="culture"></a>Culture</h2>
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<p>In addition to technical skills, Boost members value collaboration,
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acknowledgement of the help of others, and a certain level of politeness.
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Boost membership is very international, and ranges widely in age and other
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characteristics. Think of discussion as occurring among colleagues in a
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widely read forum, rather than among a few close friends.</p>
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<p>Always remember that the cumulative effort spent by people reading your
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contribution scales with the (already large) number of boost members. Thus,
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do invest time and effort to make your message as readable as possible.
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Adhere to English syntax and grammar rules such as proper capitalization.
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Avoid copious informalism, colloquial language, or abbreviations, they may
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not be understood by all readers. Re-read your message before submitting
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it.</p>
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<h2>Guidelines for Effective Discussions</h2>
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<p>Apply social engineering to prevent heated technical discussion from
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degenerating into a shouting match, and to actively encourage the
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cooperation upon which Boost depends.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Questions help. If someone suggests something that you don't think
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will work, then replying with a question like "will that compile?" or
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"won't that fail to compile, or am I missing something?" is a lot
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smoother than "That's really stupid - it won't compile." Saying
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"that fails to compile for me, and seems to violate section n.n.n of the
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standard" would be yet another way to be firm without being
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abrasive.</li>
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<li>If most of the discussion has been code-free generalities, posting a
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bit of sample code can focus people on the practical issues.</li>
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<li>If most of the discussion has been in terms of specific code, try to
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talk a bit about hidden assumptions and generalities that may be
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preventing discussion closure.</li>
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<li>Taking a time-out is often effective. Just say: "Let me think about
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that for a day or two. Let's take a time-out to digest the discussion so
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far."</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Avoid Parkinson's Bicycle Shed. Parkinson described a committee formed
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to oversee design of an early nuclear power plant. There were three agenda
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items - when to have tea, where to put the bicycle shed, and how to ensure
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nuclear safety. Tea was disposed of quickly as trivial. Nuclear
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safety was discussed for only an hour - it was so complex, scary, and
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technical that even among experts few felt comfortable with the issues.
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Endless days were then spent discussing where to put the bicycle shed (the
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parking lot would be a modern equivalent) because everyone understood the
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issues and felt comfortable discussing them. </p>
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<h2><a name="lib_names" id="lib_names"></a>Library Names</h2>
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<p>In order to ensure a uniform presentation in books and articles, we have
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adopted a convention for referring to Boost libraries. Library names can
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either be written in a compact form with a dot, as "Boost.<i>Name</i>", or
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in a long form as "the Boost <i>Name</i> library." For example:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<b>Boost.Python</b> serves a very different purpose from <b>the Boost
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Graph library</b>.
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</blockquote>Note that the word "library" is not part of the name, and as
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such isn't capitalized.
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<p>Please take care to avoid confusion in discussions between libraries
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that have been accepted into Boost and those that have not. Acceptance as a
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Boost library indicates that the code and design have passed through our
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peer-review process; failing to make the distinction devalues the hard work
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of library authors who've gone through that process. Here are some
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suggested ways to describe potential Boost libraries:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>the proposed Boost <i>Name</i> library</li>
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<li>the Boost.<i>Name</i> candidate</li>
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<li>the <i>Name</i> library (probably the best choice where
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applicable)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Note that this policy only applies to discussions, not to the
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documentation, directory structure, or even identifiers in the code of
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potential Boost libraries.</p>
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<hr>
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<p>Revised
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<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->28
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May, 2005<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" i-checksum="38549" endspan --></p>
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<p>© Beman Dawes, Rob Stewart, and David Abrahams 2000-2005</p>
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<p>Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
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accompanying file <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or copy
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at <a href=
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"http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)</p>
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