[boost] Re: win32.hpp and min/max macros

From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-02-23 20:58:41

John Maddock wrote:
> Would you like to make and manage the change?  Remove the workarounds from
> win32.hpp, and then patch all occurrences of min and max throughout boost?
> 
> John. 

<recap>
We agreed to make boost work in the presence of the min/max macros by 
wrapping all min/max function identifiers in parens, like (std::min)(a,b);
</recap>

I have spent some time and made the 800 or so edits throughout boost 
required to make it play nice with the min/max macros.  I'm running 
regressions now.  I have a couple of questions about procedure before I 
can commit the changes.

1) Is this a good time? I know there's talk about a 1.31.1 release. Will 
this be done from the 1.31.0 branch or from main? I don't want to 
destabilize before a release.

2) I can't test with old compilers, which are the ones most likely to 
have a hard time with this change. Also, I'm not a CVS guru. If all hell 
breaks loose as a result of this change, is there someone willing to 
help me back it out?

3) Is there a boost developer style guide where we can document the fact 
that all calls to min/max functions must be wrapped in parens?

4) This is the sort of thing developers will forget to do even if it's 
in a style guide. A simple way of ensuring this stays fixed would be to 
run the regressions with min() and max() #defined to garbage, so that 
violations are detected and corrected early. Is this possible?

Thanks.

-- 
Eric Niebler
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com