Schweizer Messer is a grab bag of tools for programming mainly focussed on work in robotics research requiring rapid prototyping.
That's it.
If you have trouble compiling, make sure to:
- Use gcc 4.7 (How to install on Ubuntu 12.04)
- Use a boost version that is compatible with gcc 4.7 (>= 1.51)
On Ubuntu 12.04, if your ubuntu-installed ROS depends on the ubuntu-installed boost you can simply download a later boost and install it from source - it will install to "/usr/local" per default (verify this though), where the Schweizer Messer build will look for it.