Boost C++ Libraries
C++ library collection in Developer tools
Mature C++ library collection that fills standard library gaps, well supported and reliable. Common caveat: slows builds, and some libraries are uneven in quality.
Mature C++ library collection that fills standard library gaps, well supported and reliable. Common caveat: slows builds, and some libraries are uneven in quality.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 47%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Mature, powerful standard library extensions
“It is very mature and honestly modern C++ has a lot of extremely powerful stdlib functionality”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “A Modern Web App in C” “C++ and Java have a bunch of stdlib extensions like boost, Guava, Apache Commons etc.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Why I love OCaml (2023)” “desperately needs something along the lines of boost/apache commons”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Stoat removes all LLM-generated code following user criticism” - Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Malicious Rust Crate Arrayref Runs a Build-Time Payload”
Reliable and well supported
“Isn't that a perfect example of your well supported, community embraced option?”
Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Malicious Rust Crate Arrayref Runs a Build-Time Payload” “very reliable and little supply chain/dependency hell problematic too”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “A Modern Web App in C” “Boost is as actual as ever.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “A Grand Vision for Rust” Builds and works in practice
“it'd be good to mention Boost on your website and how well it works with Fil-C”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Memory Safe Inline Assembly” “I was able to build it and a lot of it seemed to work”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Memory Safe Inline Assembly”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slows builds and adds heavy includes
“People forgot how fast C/C++ compilation can be without 10 Boost includes in each module.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Several core problems with Rust” “Every time I remove boost from projects the build times drop dramatically”
Comment from 18 Sep 2026 on Hacker News “it's huge dynamic libraries that are a pain to build and use”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Epoll vs. Io_uring in Linux” - Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Malicious Rust Crate Arrayref Runs a Build-Time Payload”
Complex templates and hard-to-read code
“You can go way overboard with templates/macros/traits/generics.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “A Grand Vision for Rust” “Reading boost libraries was like reading brainfuck”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “The result of the C++26 DIS ballot” “inefficient abstracted programming models”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Linus Torvalds's first LLM-assisted patch series” Uneven quality, some junk additions
“A lot of the new stuff that gets added into boost these days is basically junk”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “A Grand Vision for Rust” “Boost has uneven quality. Many of the best bits end up in the C++ standard.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “A Grand Vision for Rust”
What people said
28 of the 33 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Reading boost libraries was like reading brainfuck”
“inefficient abstracted programming models”
“It is very mature and honestly modern C++ has a lot of extremely powerful stdlib functionality”
“very reliable and little supply chain/dependency hell problematic too”
“Every time I remove boost from projects the build times drop dramatically”
“What's the point of implementing what boils down to a 10 line function”
“Good examples are Java's Apache Commons or C++'s Boost.”
“how it can make building projects that incorporate it a pain”
“Isn't that a perfect example of your well supported, community embraced option?”
“The overhead for a fiber switch using this support is about as heavy as a virtual function call.”
“it'd be good to mention Boost on your website and how well it works with Fil-C”
“I was able to build it and a lot of it seemed to work”
“it's huge dynamic libraries that are a pain to build and use”
“the headache of setting up a project and tooling to do that was enough to push me to other languages”
“god damn is it fucking frustrating when I accidentally use the exception version”
“an 800 lb gorilla of a common dependency that gets called in just to do something very simple”
“Boost has uneven quality. Many of the best bits end up in the C++ standard.”
“A lot of the new stuff that gets added into boost these days is basically junk”
“Boost is as actual as ever.”
“You can go way overboard with templates/macros/traits/generics.”
“get lots of great software with attested (!) authorship”
“desperately needs something along the lines of boost/apache commons”
“Sometimes outdated versions of those libraries at that.”
“boost is on my “do not ever use ever oh my god what are you doing stop it” list. It’s so bad.”
“I got tired of playing with BOOST and nholman”
“People forgot how fast C/C++ compilation can be without 10 Boost includes in each module.”
“C++ and Java have a bunch of stdlib extensions like boost, Guava, Apache Commons etc.”
“they're just hyping up the fact that they spent a bit of time prompting AI to do something other than the Tailwind default”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.