Re: [boost] [test] trunk breakage

Subject: Re: [boost] [test] trunk breakage
From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-01-03 22:09:00

On 12/29/2009 1:45 AM, Gennadiy Rozental wrote:
> Eric Niebler<eric<at>  boostpro.com>  writes:
>>
>> On 12/28/2009 7:03 AM, Gennadiy Rozental wrote:
>>> What is the proper (portable) way to copy va_list? Or at least
>>> what is the workaround for this compiler?
>>
>> There isn't a portable way to copy a va_list. va_copy is not
>> standard. On some systems it's __va_copy, and other systems (e.g.
>> msvc) don't have it at all. Can the code in question be rewritten
>> to not need it?
>
> I essentially need to do double pas through va_list. I can't
> reinitialize it cause I am doing this in a function which takes
> va_list as argument.

As others here have pointed out, va_copy is not standard in C++03, which
is the language that most (all?) of Boost's users care about. Boost's
guidelines are pretty explicit about non-standard code:

> Aim for ISO Standard C++. Than means making effective use of the
> standard features of the language, and avoiding non-standard compiler
> extensions. It also means using the C++ Standard Library where
> applicable.

Of course, it's not always possible to avoid non-standard code. But if
there's a way to make just a single pass over the va_list and save the
results for later re-use, I think that would be preferable. It would
certainly address the portability problems this change has caused.

-- 
Eric Niebler
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com