[ros-users] ROS usability -> boost

[rdean at gdrs.com]

On the boost topic, I have been a boost fan for many years... until having to support multiple versions.  Recently I changed all our core to use C++0x equivalents which fixed the dependency issues, and surprisingly compiles 30% faster.  (basically boost #include's a massive number of headers, while gcc equivalents do not)

This is an important point for moving forwards with ROS simplicity in addition to API and tutorial type usability. Make use of what the compiler provides while avoiding "tricks" in the language (some template solutions out on the web are cool, but eat up compile time and complexity. *cough*mpl*cough*). Even something as common as Boost has potentially nasty dependency and code complexity issues. Maybe retrofitting roscpp is a poor use of resources at this time, but moving forwards with new code or ROS2.0 it makes sense.

-----Original Message-----
From: ros-users-bounces at lists.ros.org [mailto:ros-users-bounces at lists.ros.org] On Behalf Of kamicc olo
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 8:56 AM
To: User discussions
Subject: Re: [ros-users] ROS usability

Been facing an issue with SSE and ARM for some time either. Not mentioning libboost...

On 2/20/14, Arkapravo Bhaumik <arkapravobhaumik at gmail.com> wrote:
> Agree on the redundancy of packages (read xkcd zindabad) and the boost 
> issues ! Have faced serious boost issues.
>
>
> On 20 February 2014 18:36, Michael Fritscher < 
> michael.fritscher at telematik-zentrum.de> wrote:
>
>> Hallo everybody,
>>
>> just my 2 cents:
>>
>> In my oppinion, the ROS core is fairly well documented and quite 
>> useable
>> -
>> both for beginners and advanced users. The problem are in my oppinion 
>> many of the packages. Most of the packages are more or less drivers 
>> for robots or middleware things. But even e.g. on the usb camera side 
>> there are at least 5 different drivers (see 
>> http://www.iheartrobotics.com/ 
>> 2010/05/testing-ros-usb-camera-drivers.html and 
>> http://pharos.ece.utexas.edu/wiki/index.php/How_to_Use_a_
>> Webcam_in_ROS_with_the_gscam_Package ) - why the heck we do need at 
>> least
>> 5 drivers for a simple thing like capturing webcam pictures?! I know 
>> that there are different requirements, but forking isn't always the 
>> best solution...
>>
>> Additionally, many plugins aren't that usable. Are little example are 
>> localization using 1 or 2 video cameras. viso2_ros doesn't need sse2, 
>> which is a no-go for ARM-cpus which are getting more and more 
>> popular.
>> PTAM is at least compiling, but it even fail to correctly display the 
>> video image (both on arm and on a normal x64 laptop). Sometimes it 
>> remembers me about https://xkcd.com/927/ ...
>>
>> Another problem is in my oppinion the library-hell problem. ROS 
>> packages are tightly tied with specific library version (e.g. 
>> libboost) which
>> (roughly) exists only on one specific distro-version. This makes it 
>> almost inpossible to use binary versions of ros on another distros. 
>> Perhaps this can be solved that the binary packages depend on e.g. 
>> "libboost-1.42 | roslibboost-groovy" - so either the distro-version 
>> or a ros-own version can be used.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Michael Fritscher
>>
>> --
>> ZfT - Zentrum für Telematik e.V.
>> Michael Fritscher
>> Allesgrundweg 12
>> 97218 Gerbrunn
>> Tel:  +49 (931) 3 29 29 54 - 21
>> Email: michael.fritscher at telematik-zentrum.de
>> Web: http://www.telematik-zentrum.de
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ros-users mailing list
>> ros-users at lists.ros.org
>> http://lists.ros.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-users
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> *Arkapravo Bhaumik*
>
>
> http://mobotica.blogspot.in/p/head.html
>
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