[boost] Re: Library versioning

From: Herb Sutter (hsutter_at_[hidden])
Date: 1999-12-21 11:56:07

Greg wrote:
>I don't see why we should ever remove a component.  If we really need
>to the tradition is to deprecate it, and then remove it much later,
>if ever.

What if a component is demonstrably broken and cannot be implemented
consistently with the standard as a whole, and the only major alternatives are
to change library requirements (impossible, breaking lots of user code) or
removing the component? We already have an existence proof for this case.

>> A. Just change it; e.g., in C++200x, say std::stack simply no longer
>> existed. This makes #1(a)(b)(c) trivial, but doesn't meet #2(a)
>> because a conforming C++200x implementation would be allowed to reject
>> existing well-formed-under-C++98 programs that use std::stack.
>
>Nope.

I don't get it. Could you elaborate? Or are you just saying "nope, just don't
remove anything, and the problem won't arise"?

Herb