Originally posted by: Anh Tuyen Tran
Boost is a collection of C++ libraries, which are developed, reviewed, and published by the Boost community on boost.org. Libraries in Boost utilize the advanced features and the latest innovations in C++ programming. This is important for the development of high quality applications where the project requirements might exceed the extent of features provided by the C++ standard libraries.
The Boost package consists of the code base to build the Boost libraries, the source code to bootstrap the build engine b2, and the Jam configuration files to drive the build process. b2 supports a wide range of compilers on a large number of platforms. Each compiler is represented as a toolset to the build engine. Starting with version 1.59.0, in addition to the traditional toolset vacpp, Boost incorporated a new toolset tilted xlcpp for IBM compilers. The toolset xlcpp is officially supported by the IBM XL compiler V13.1.3 for little endian Linux distributions running on the IBM POWER architecture. For V13.1.3 little endian Linux users, the traditional toolset vacpp is no longer supported; switching to xlcpp toolset is required. For V13.1.3 AIX users, due to the fact that Boost 1.55.0 is the latest supported version, the traditional toolset vacpp is still applicable.
Since the Jam configuration files required for the build process are provided within the Boost package, building Boost libraries with b2 using the xlcpp toolset for IBM compilers is a straightforward process. The following article published recently on developerWorks will introduce the procedures to build and install Boost libraries using the new xlcpp toolset for IBM compiler.