On Mon, Apr 25, 2022 at 1:55 PM Peter Dimov via Ext <ext_at_[hidden]>
wrote:

> Tom Honermann wrote:
> > On 4/25/22 1:12 PM, Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:
> > > [Peter]
> > >> You are correct that the requests don't stop here.
> > > Please, go talk to Tom 😊
> > > Let me know when you're on the same page and what the actual request
> > > is 😉
> >
> > I think Peter and I are pretty well aligned. At a minimum, we're aligned
> on
> > support for the standard library.
> >
> > Supporting Boost as Peter suggested would require something like what the
> > SG15 TR intends to specify or some other form of deeper integration
> between
> > the compiler and the Boost installation; I'm content to categorize those
> > integrations as falling on the sky scraper side. Like Peter, I would
> like for the
> > compiler to just support those integrations, but I would also like for
> build
> > systems to just never be required at all and I don't see that happening
> any time
> > soon :)
>
> Boost here is just an example. The `import <boost/smart_ptr.hpp>` scenario
> concerns a header-only library that is, as today, installed somewhere in
> the
> default compiler include path. #include works today, we'd ideally want
> import
> to work tomorrow without additional friction, so that people can painlessly
> migrate to using modules.
>
> The Regex scenario describes a C++ compiled library that is installed in
> the
> default include path and the default library path (by e.g. the system
> package
> manager, although not necessarily.) The question here is would it be
> possible,
> in the brave new module world, for the system package manager to install
> some things somewhere such that `import <boost/regex.hpp>` or
> `import boost.regex` works as well as #include works today.
>
> (I'm assuming here that both libraries have been changed in whatever way
> is needed to support modules.)
>
>
> Possibly for the system compiler, so that the BMI for
<boost/smart_ptr.hpp> could be produced upon installation of the boost
library.

However, this will also make compiler upgrades and secondary compilers a
nightmare to install as the entire world gets rebuilt to generate some set
of ABI compatible importable objects.