Hello all - I just put together a pull request <https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel/pull/1993>to add maestro file parsing support (using maeparser <https://github.com/schrodinger/maeparser>) to OpenBabel. Geoff pointed out in the pull request that Boost is not currently a requirement of OpenBabel, and that it was not clear if it's a good idea to make it one.
I'm curious what the current opinions would be towards making Boost a requirement of OpenBabel? RDKit has had a semi-optional Boost requirement for a while (including for its use of maeparser now), so OpenBabel wouldn't be alone amongst Chemistry packages. As long as someone's not using cutting edge Boost features, it seems a guarantee for package managers to have working versions of Boost available (including Conda of course). There's some 'in the middle' options: detecting whether Boost is already installed, and only building Maestro support in if it's already available; or having maeparser just off by default and allow people to turn it on (also turning Boost requirement on). I think those options would effectively turn maeparser off for the vast majority of users who would be using OpenBabel from a package built with minimum dependencies. I'm personally advocating for adding a default-boost-requirement that could be turned off by turning maeparser off, but am of course at the service of the project owners :) Looking forward to any thoughts/discussions, Pat
_______________________________________________ OpenBabel-Devel mailing list OpenBabel-Devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openbabel-devel
