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Re: How about a committee library as well as a standard library? (was Fwd: Distributed random number ordering)

From: Jason McKesson <jmckesson_at_[hidden]>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2021 20:31:59 -0400
On Fri, May 14, 2021 at 10:36 AM Ville Voutilainen via Std-Proposals
<std-proposals_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 14 May 2021 at 17:24, René Ferdinand Rivera Morell
> <grafikrobot_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, May 14, 2021 at 9:09 AM Ville Voutilainen via Std-Proposals <std-proposals_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> >>
> >> Give me a starting point similar to CPAN, PyPI, crates.io. The One
> >> Place on the Internets where I go
> >> when I need to find a C++ library.
> >
> >
> > For now you can go to <https://conan.io/center/> and <https://vcpkg.io/en/packages.html>. For the future I am actively working on <http://wg21.link/p1177>.
> >
> > For the rest of the thread.. Ask yourself what your goals are. And what already exists that meets, and doesn't, your goals.
>
> That's all well and good, but I, myself, am not looking for "C++
> libraries that happen to have a vcpackage or conan package available".
> I'm looking for "C++ libraries". While it's hopefully so that the
> latter leads to increasing availability of the former, I do not wish
> the
> search to be constrained by the former.

The thing is, we already have a solution for that: <insert search-engine here>.

Finding a C++ library that does X is not an issue. The issues tend to be:

1: I found a random GitHub depot that looks possibly useful but hasn't
been updated in 2 years.
2: I found a random GitHub depot, but the code is obviously garbage.
3: I found a random GitHub depot that maybe has some good code in it,
but I can't tell if anybody uses it or if bugs that are found will be
fixed.
4: I found a random library, but I don't have the required wizardry to
actually link with it (ie: it requires its own unique #defines or
build configurations or whatever, without any knowledge of how to use
it).
5: I found a random library, and I can use it, but it has no
functional documentation.

The problem is not finding a library. The problem is *curation*:
finding a library that is usable, useful, and documented enough to be
able to use it. Boost functions as a useful curation process. Vcpkg
kind of has curation. Poco also exists.

I don't think that adding yet another C++ library curation process is
going to fix anything.

Received on 2021-05-14 19:32:13