where can I find a good boost reference?

Question

I'd like to have a good up-to-date reference for boost by my side, and the only books I found are the following:

• Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost
• The C++ Standard Library Extensions: A Tutorial and Reference

Both books are somewhat dated, and I am sure boost has been evolving.

Obviously I can just use a direct source of Boost website.

Is it enough to just use the website to learn and reference boost libraries?

What If I am one of those folks who prefers hardcover books? Which one would you recommend?

Thanks

--Edit--

Does anyone know of online video tutorials on Boost, as well as text turials?

Answer 1

I think that boost website has complete information about this library.

Answer 2

Try this one out:

http://man.leftworld.net/develop/asio/reference/index.html

http://alexott.blogspot.com/search/label/boost

http://www.boost.org/doc/

http://torjo.com/tobias/

http://docs.huihoo.com/boost/1-33-1/libs/multi_index/doc/reference/index.html

Answer 3

I feel for you: I like books myself. However, I hate to say it, but it seems that the books for boost that are out are very limited, and I imagine will be for some time.

Boost seems to be evolving as I write this answer and is being written at such a rapid pace, I suspect that any book reference would be obsoleted so quickly that it simply wouldn't make any sense to a publisher's bottom line. So your best option, right now, is likely WWW documentation.

I would wait for boost to mature some more or wait for C++0x, and in the interim to check out the boost website for documentation.

Answer 4

There's no substitute for the online documentation. Sometimes, Boost libraries get redesigned and refactored, and so books will inevitably become outdated. The online docs are the only authoritative source of documentation.

Many Boost libs offer their documentation in PDF form though, making it a bit nicer to read (and that even means you can print it out easily if you prefer)

Is it enough to just use the website to learn and reference boost libraries?

It's the one and only authoritative reference, so 'yes' to the last part. As to learning Boost, kinda. A few of the Boost libraries have documentation that's not exactly easy to read. It is perfectly clear to anyone who already understands the library, but not very helpful to newcomers. In those cases, Google is your friend. See what other samples you can find online. Others have used the library, and some of them have documented their findings.

Answer 5

First, here's the possible answer to your topic. I say possible because the book has not been released yet. I will have to say, though, I'm very excited about this book since it's super new. Like you, when trying to learn something, I just like reading books or watch videos. When doing development, however, I like to use the internet as I can quickly search.

My 2 cents (read if you want):

I've had experience using both Boost and Qt, and frankly speaking, I find Boost documentation to be sorely lacking, not to mention hard to use. Another major gripe about Boost that I have is that my project compiles quite a bit slower.

Maybe it is just me, but I found Qt much more intuitive to use. I really wish that Boost documentation is like Qt Assistant. If you have never checked out the Qt documentation, you should.

Actually now that I've used both, I learned one very important lesson: when using a third-party library, don't decide to use it simply because it's powerful, but also because it's simple to use and has a very clear documentation + easy-to-understand examples.

I would be interested to see what people think.