Adding New Libraries

Most Boost Libraries originate from individual developers, or small teams, following their own interests, rather than from organized external demand. Typically, self-motivated developers identify a gap in the C++ ecosystem or have a strong interest in a particular domain. To be clear, Boost is not driven by corporate feature requests, community polling or public wishlists, nor top-down direction (though The C++ Alliance might sponsor, or partially sponsor, work it deems of specific value, such as it did with Boost.Json). The community acts as a gatekeeper to ensure quality, generality, and long-term usefulness, rather than as a source for library concepts.

The keys to a successful development of a new library are to identify core functionality and start simple. Prioritize functionality that provides significant value to developers and aligns with Boost’s goals of promoting high-quality, reusable libraries. Avoid adding unnecessary features that may increase complexity without adding much value. It’s often beneficial to start with a simpler implementation that addresses a specific problem or use case effectively. A library with a narrow focus and a clear, intuitive API is more likely to be accepted by the Boost community than one that attempts to solve too many problems at once or introduces unnecessary complexity.

In addition to this, consider future extensibility, performance, portability, current trends, and always remember you can seek community advice and feedback through the Boost mailing lists.

Yes, Boost libraries have traditionally excelled in areas such as high-performance computing, cross-platform, embedded systems, and networking. Taking your example of generative AI, many Boost libraries could be used as components of a new AI model - such as parsing, networking, serialization, errors and exception handling, math and statistics, randomness, and so on. A new quality generative AI model is a considerable undertaking, and Boost libraries could do a lot of the grunt work and leave a development team with the most creative aspects. Simulating quantum computing, or creating a modern game engine, gets a similar answer, a development team could focus on the interactive UI, with Boost libraries handling a myriad of administrative and operational tasks.

A key aspect of a successful Boost library is focus: what is the problem that the library in question is the solution for?

The new libraries most requested tend to be more like updates to existing libraries. There’s a common desire for more comprehensive asynchronous programming support, often for higher-level abstractions or more extensive async features. Another example is more programming options, say for an enhanced version of Boost.ProgramOptions, or for libraries supporting earlier or later C++ standards, such as requests to support pre-C++17 standards.