Re: [Boost-users] conflicting intmax_t definitions - Boost 1.53 and gcc 4.8 incompatibility?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] conflicting intmax_t definitions - Boost 1.53 and gcc 4.8 incompatibility?
From: John M. Dlugosz (ngnr63q02_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-01-21 10:20:32

On 1/20/2014 6:32 AM, Nate Finch wrote:
> Yes, there are some using namespace boost statements, and some of them are before some
> includes... but why would that suddenly break when it was working before I upgraded?  Is
> boost now defining its own intmax_t (and other such tings, like uint64_t) where it wasn't
> before?

Because that's what 'using directives' ("using namespace XXX;") are for:  to break builds 
by surprise and cause strange compatibility problems.

Any change to the XXX namespace will change the symbols seen by the importer, and that may 
cause ambiguities (if you're lucky -- they are caught by the compiler) or unintended 
bizarre calls of the wrong function you didn't even know about (esp. when templates are 
involved).

Don't dump somebody else's namespace into your work willy-nilly.  If they are not 
maintained together, it's just wrong.  Use using declarations for individual symbols, 
declaring just the ones you need (and are thus aware of).