Re: Query regd. "Modern C++ Design" program.
* David Abrahams:
"Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email)"
<SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org> writes:
A cure that's slightly different is of course to use some other
compile time assert, such as Boost's (which corresponds to Andrei's
original one, as is so often the case in Boost; perhaps the whole
Boost library should have been renamed as "The library of
applications of Andrei Alexandrescu's techniques" (sort of like
"The artist formerly known as Prince", but in reverse); but anyway,
I like the original compile time assert much better than the one
above).
Thanks for being so flattering, but even if you are trying to make a
hyperbole, you're definitely wrong about Boost's scope. I know I'd be
mildly annoyed I were one of the many creative contributors to Boost and
read this characterization of it.
Thanks, Andrei.
For the record, work on Loki was concurrent with a great deal of work
on Boost. Boost certainly benefited from some of what Andrei did
(is_convertible, for example). Like any large codebase, however, the
majority of Boost is built on ideas that were already well-known (for
example, runtime polymorphism, generic programming, template
metaprogramming -- all of which predate Loki *and* Boost by many
years). That said, some really original thinking and techniques were
originated by Boost contributors, and it's more than mildly annoying
to hear colleagues for whom I have great respect described as merely
picking up and applying Andrei's ideas.
Of course I didn't write that, none of it, but it's not annoying at all
to have such a wile and personal characterization attributed to me, when
the original, about a very different matter, is quoted for comparision:
you're forgiven. ;-)
Not long ago someone enquired about the meaning of some obscure Boost
code, and to help answer that I put the code snippet into Google code
search, and out came the original Loki code with explanatory comments
and more meaningful names, and I saw no attribution for that in Boost.
I no longer recall exactly what that code was (functors, I think), but
as a concrete example, the acknowledgments for the functors part of the
Boost library do not mention Andrei. At least not up front. I think
that's just an oversight, there and elsewhere (/searching/ for "andrei"
restricted to the Boost site turns up two and a half pagefulls of
attributions), but it does yield a negative impression.
So my comment was not just a joke, or flattery, or an invitation to go
overboard in paraphrasing.
That comment was also partly serious.
But perhaps I'm too meticulous about attributions.
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