removal of boost dependency

[VolkerEnderlein]

Original report by Christoph Vetter (Bitbucket: chrvetter, ).

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Hi Roy, I would like to minimize external dependencies of Coin when using it for our products. The dependency of coin on boost for non-testing code is a problem. Can Coin replace the scoped pointer with the C++11 unique_ptr instead? And intrusive_ptr with the underlying reference counting of open inventor again? Best Christoph

[VolkerEnderlein]

Original comment by Bastiaan Veelo (Bitbucket: veelo, GitHub: veelo).

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Hi Christoph,

Can you explain why using Boost is a problem? I don't think there is a runtime dependency, and Coin contains a fork of Boost so it is not really external anymore.

Coin's history dates back to the times of inmature C++ compilers, and it currently supports old compilers well. It may be too early to ditch pre-C++11 compilers, this is something that can be discussed. Having a configure option to enable support for newer standards would be great, but I don't know how feasible that is. In any case, making the changes you propose is a lot of work. Are you prepared to contribute PRs?

Best Bastiaan.

[VolkerEnderlein]

Original comment by Christoph Vetter (Bitbucket: chrvetter, ).

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The problem for us is that it pulls in a lot of code that has to be reviewed in some fashion.

[VolkerEnderlein]

Original comment by Bastiaan Veelo (Bitbucket: veelo, GitHub: veelo).

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I am in favour of removal for the sake of simplicity. But there are traces in the code that Boost is being used for unit tests, although I am not sure that these have been made public. I guess we can accept pull requests against a separate C++11 branch.

If the review is about copyright then I don't see the need for removal as the Boost license is one of the most permissive in existence.