Re: [boost] Changes to VS 2012 config

Subject: Re: [boost] Changes to VS 2012 config
From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-12-01 00:34:41

On 11/29/2012 10:49 AM, Eric Niebler wrote:
> On 11/29/2012 12:59 AM, Sebastian Redl wrote:
>> The CTPs are just that: community technical previews. In other words,
>> pre-betas. Eventually (like Update 1 just did) they will become
>> out-of-band releases. The VS2012 IDE will remain the same, but either
>> the toolset is updated or you get a new selectable platform toolset.
>> Update 1 added a new toolset. Update 2 (or whatever they'll call the
>> variadics update) might not, if the compiled part of the runtime remains
>> the same (or if MS simply doesn't care to give their users the choice).
>> So we should treat the Updates as releases for Boost, but the CTPs are
>> just betas. We can support them in the trunk, but if the final release
>> of that Update has changes, don't expect Boost to support the CTP variant.
> 
> I'll be seeing Herb tomorrow. I'll ask him in person.

So here's the scoop from Herb. There are two separate things: the
rolling releases (like the just-released Update 1 which added XP support
to VS'12), and the CTP releases (like the one that just that added
variadic templates to the compiler). The former are officially
supported, go-live products; the latter are not. There is, and should
be, *no expectation* that the features delivered in the CTP releases
will ever make it into the officially supported updates.

On other words, we should operate under the assumption that there will
be no improvements in C++11 compliance of any officially supported
Microsoft compiler until the next major release of Visual Studio.

I worded that very carefully. I believe it is 100% accurate. I will be
directing Herb's attention to this thread so that he can comment if I
got anything wrong.

What that means for Boost is up for us to decide. But given the above, I
think it would be wise for us to add support for the CTP releases to
Boost.Config using _MSC_FULL_VER so that we don't have to wait until
VS.Next to start taking advantage of variadic templates (for example).

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