[boost] Boost header guidelines

From: John Maddock (John_Maddock_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-09-28 06:49:15

I wonder if it is worth while having a standard policy to deal with the old
C style headers, the problem is that while most current compilers ship with
the <cname> header variants, not all of them place the contents in
namespace std.  There would appear to be three workarounds:

1) Always use the <name.h> approach - the primary advantage is that this
always works, but pollutes the global namespace.

2) Use the <cname> version along with the workaround:

#include <cname>

namespace std{} // dummy in case not alway defined

namespace boost{ namespace internal{

using namespace std;

/* code goes here */

}
}

3) use the <cname> version along with a macro BOOST_STDC which is defined
to either <nothing> or std depending upon the compiler:

#include <cname>

namespace boost{ namespace internal{

// here we can refer to BOOST_STDC::cfunction etc

/* code goes here */

}
}

Option (2) is probably the easiest for .cpp files but I don't fancy it in
headers (for template code for example), which leaves option (3), any
thoughts?

Thanks,

John Maddock.