Hi Robert,

> Things I would be hesitant about would be increasing compile time
> further, increasing code size of the wrappers, the boost dependency
> and adding an extra external dependency to the OpenSceneGraph
> distribution.

Fortunately, newer compilers seem to be much faster when compiling code that
contains templates. At least VC8 seems to be faster than VC7. I agree that
compiling things quickly is important, but gaining run-time speed by making
build time longer is something I can usually accept, especially in
applications that require great run-time performance like OSG. Performance
is always a trade-off after all. :-)

> W.r.t boost, some engineers love boost, others hate it.  Genwrappers
> uses boost, but this is an external tool that only a small number of
> developers need to use.  Adding a boost dependency to the core OSG
> pushes the issue right into everybodies workspace so the love/hate
> relationship with boost will come to fore.

<IMHO>
Well, boost could be a replacement for other dependencies like OpenThreads,
for example. Many features of Boost will be integrated in the next version
of the C++ language, so I like to think of it as *the* complement to the
Standard Library. In fact, some of my projects that used to depend on
several libraries (each with its own coding style, design patterns and
conventions) now depend on just the Boost package and use a style that is
consistent with that of the STL. Regardless of whether one likes it or not,
Boost is handy to have as dependency (and its installation is a breeze).
</IMHO>

Personal opinions aside, Boost is just a library and as such nobody should
be forced to use it. I'll certainly use it for my new introspection
framework, but if a dependency to Boost is not acceptable in OSG I'll fork
the project and remove the dependency on the new branch. This means more
coding work, but I don't see it as a problem.

> From a non OSG lead perspective, I see real value in your work on
> introspection being being more widely used and recognized.  Lack of
> introspection is one of C++'s greatest weaknesses.

Thanks for your support.

Cheers,
Marco

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