Another new library underway

Jan 10, 2025

We continue to make exciting progress developing new libraries for inclusion in Boost.

Decimal

Decimal (https://github.com/cppalliance/decimal) is a ground-up implementation of IEEE 754 Decimal Floating Point types in C++14, co-authored with Chris Kormanyos. The library is now mature and ready for the Boost review, which begins on January 15th. This quarter focused on performance optimizations and adding modern language features, including support for C++20’s <format>. We welcome users to try the library and provide feedback before the review period. Discussions are ongoing in the Cpplang Slack channel #boost-decimal.

Crypt

While C libraries like OpenSSL and libsodium dominate the cryptographic space, Chris and I are developing a modern C++ alternative. Built with C++20, we leverage nightly Clang-20 builds to utilize the hardening modes offered by libc++ (https://libcxx.llvm.org/Hardening.html). These tools help validate memory safety in our design for security-critical applications. Currently, we’re implementing Cryptographic Primitives with plans to pursue FIPS 140-3 certification. Our long-term roadmap includes TLS implementation, which would provide an alternative to OpenSSL currently used by several Boost libraries. While this is an ambitious undertaking, we’re committed to delivering a high-quality, safe, and secure solution.