Since its initial release in September of 2000, the Boost Graph Library has grown considerably and gained many users. In this time we have noticed certain usability issues, found new techniques and libraries that replace old ones, and extended it in ways not originally considered. It is time to revisit the design of the library to create an even better Boost Graph Library.

We're evolving Boost.Graph in a separate part of the Boost sandbox at ​http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/graph-v2/

Here are some ideas for changes we would like to make in version 2 of the library. Additional suggestions are welcome:

• Namespaces: move everything into the namespace boost::graph
• Named parameters: use the named parameter library instead of the BGL named parameters mechanism.
• Documentation: Port to Quickbook.
• Usability: Try to address some of the usability issues that keep coming up:
• Property maps: Create a facility that makes it easier to create external property maps for a graph.
• Simple graph types: Create jack-of-all-trades class templates "directed_graph" and "undirected_graph", that make it very easy to add internal properties (e.g., using bundled properties), modify graphs, and use them with algorithms. Compilation speed is very important.