Boost best practices?

Question

I've used Boost graph library a fair amount but not much of the rest of it. I frequently see recommendations here to use parts of Boost (say, Boost's various smart pointers). Obviously Boost is good and good to use. It is also large or diverse. Does anyone know of a FAQ or decent best practices doc to help a knowledgeable C++ programmer make better use of Boost?

Answer 1

You might find http://stackoverflow.com/questions/379290/how-to-learn-boost useful.

But in general, keep in mind that Boost is not a library, but a collection of libraries. Which means that you can and should use parts of it, but probably not all of it.

Just read over the list of libraries within Boost, and check the documentation for the specific libraries that sound useful. The Boost website is really the authoritative source, both on what Boost has to offer, and on how it should be used.

Pick out individual libraries that seem useful, and see what the Boost website has to say about them.

Answer 2

When some problem looks like a wheel which was invented already, firstly I look at boost's list of libraries and I trying to use that which will be appropriate for certain task. That's is my way to learn boost.

Answer 3

I learned the libraries I use by other developers suggesting curtain libraries and me reading all the documentation I could find/needed to use the library.

However recently I bought this book, Beyond the C++ Standard, that introduces the most common parts of Boost. Even with reasonable boost experience I found this book really useful. It explains what the the libraries do, why they do it, how to use it and some of the techniques they use to implement it.