How to quickly test new Boost versions and libraries?

Question

As many C++ programmers, I really appreciate the Boost libraries, and use them in many projects. Consequently, I like to keep myself up-to-date with the new libraries that get added regularly.

However, I often find myself wanting to try some new features without installing again another version on my computer. Basically, I would like to be able to try out some code snippets rapidly, without going through the burden of downloading the sources and compiling them.

I tried to do so on online compilers such as ideone or codepad, but the versions of Boost they provide are not quite up-to-date (1.39 for ideone and 1.34 for codepad).

Do you know any online compiler that will let me test the latest versions of Boost? If not, how do you proceed to test only some library? If I do a partial checkout of the svn repository, how can I be sure that I fetched all dependencies?

Answer 1

Just make a virtual machine (VirtualBox is good and free), install the OS on it, make a "snapshot" of the VM, then install your dev packages like the latest Boost. If it isn't what you want, roll back to the snapshot and install other things. Once you have a configuration you like, clone that VM and keep trying new ones on one of the clones.