Re: [boost] Review request for variant2, review manager wanted

Subject: Re: [boost] Review request for variant2, review manager wanted
From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2019-02-24 00:06:22

>     If I remember rightly, former senior Boost folk tried to stop
>     std::variant shipping with its valueless-by-exception design,
>     demonstrating that it could be easily avoided using a fallback to a
>     double buffer design.
> 
> Peter and I were both very vocal in committee lists about this, although
> I was not too fond of double-buffering specifically. There were several
> multi-hundred post threads leading up to C++17 about it.

As I mentioned, the outcome could have been worse still. And there are
much worse mistakes-in-hindsight in the standard.

Though, I guess we are actually finally getting C++ 98 exported
templates - albeit somewhat reworked - in C++ 20. I look forward to
seeing if that damning EDG paper on exported template link performance
gets borne out in real world applications by average programmers who
don't fully understand Modules.

Niall