Re: Fwd: Re: Proposing statsort for Boost.Sort

   Francisco - thank you for your email.


   Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 4:35 AM
   From: "Nigel Stewart via Boost" <[email protected]>
   To: "Boost developers' mailing list" <[email protected]>
   Cc: "Nigel Stewart" <[email protected]>
   Subject: [boost] Re: Fwd: Re: Proposing statsort for Boost.Sort
   Thanks Francisco,
   You inspired me to engage with and respond thoughtfully to Peter.
   Thank you for that!
   I graduated Computer Science in 1994.
   I did some lecturing later, those indeed were the days.
   Mentoring is indeed something worth some investment.
   - Nigel
   On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:16 PM Francisco José Tapia via Boost <
   [email protected]> wrote:
   > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
   > De: Nigel Stewart <[email protected]>
   > Date: mié, 20 may 2026 a las 13:14
   > Subject: Re: [boost] Re: Proposing statsort for Boost.Sort
   > To: Francisco José Tapia <[email protected]>
   >
   >
   > Francisco,
   >
   > Thank you so much for saying what needed to be said, and
   diplomatically.
   >
   > More interesting as a research result perhaps, than for real-world
   > production use.
   > At least so far.
   >
   > - Nigel
   >
   > On Wed, May 20, 2026 at 6:45 PM Francisco José Tapia via Boost
   > <[email protected]> wrote:
   > >
   > > Hello,
   > >
   > > maybe I didn’t explain myself clearly about how the library works.
   > >
   > > Once you add an algorithm to the library, you can’t remove it
   later, even
   > > if it’s surpassed by newer algorithms, because there are software
   > programs
   > > and companies that are using it.
   >
   >
   > Hello,
   >
   > Thank you Nigel for your message.
   >
   > Behind my words there is a very clear idea and intention. The results
   of
   > Peter's algorithm are not good enough to be included in the library.
   > However, his work has my full respect and consideration.
   >
   > Doing something new, breaking new ground where no one has gone
   before,
   > without knowing clearly whether it leads anywhere, is hard work and,
   on
   > many occasions, emotionally exhausting. When you are in that
   situation,
   > even if the result is not what was expected, it is very rewarding to
   have
   > your effort recognised and valued. That is talent in its purest form.
   >
   > If you take the engineers from the best companies in the world and
   ask them
   > whether they have done something new, something that has never been
   done
   > before — whether successful or not — I assure you that very few would
   > remain. That is the kind of talent that is so often talked about and
   so
   > little understood. Meaningful talent, not nominal talent, nor talent
   by
   > position or education.
   >
   > At Boost we are a club of geeks, although our manners disguise it and
   we
   > may come across as conventional people. We have many people whom I
   > sincerely admire for their talent, their vision and their work, and I
   can
   > assure you that my admiration is not given lightly.
   >
   > We — companies, the world — need people who, like us, like Peter,
   blaze a
   > trail.
   >
   > The important thing is to keep moving forward. Peter did not succeed
   on the
   > first attempt; perhaps on the second, something might emerge from his
   mind
   > that leaves us astonished, and it will be a pleasure to welcome him
   and
   > other people with new ideas.
   >
   > Looking at him, I see myself, when I joined Boost and proposed a
   library
   > for creating concurrent sets, multisets, maps and multimaps, allowing
   > multiple threads to work on them concurrently in a safe manner. It
   was not
   > well received, I suppose due to my clumsiness in presenting it. I
   ended up
   > in the Sort library, with sorting algorithms that I developed for
   that
   > library.
   >
   > That is why Peter and people like him matter to me, because they are
   the
   > hope. For that very reason I am firm in my ideas, but I try to be
   careful,
   > kind, and to acknowledge the value of that effort.
   >
   > What needs to be done and how to do it I have learned over my more
   than 30
   > years of teaching Computer Science. That is all.
   >
   > Yours sincerely,
   >
   > Francisco Tapia
   >
   > [email protected]
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References

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