Re: [boost] Metaprogramming VC++ - more of Loki ported

From: David Abrahams (david.abrahams_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-11-30 09:16:32

Mat, that's terriffic! Not only does it contribute to the widespread
applicability of Andrei's work, which will undoubtedly benefit many, but it
clearly explains and documents many of the workarounds needed to get
metaprograms to work with VC6. Clear documentation is the cornerstone of
useful library code!

I think your metaprogramming portability document is a great idea. While I
don't like the idea of investing effort in broken compilers, it's much
better to do it once than to cause  many people to re-discover the same
tricks.

-Dave

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mat Marcus" <mmarcus_at_[hidden]>
To: <boost_at_[hidden]>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 3:18 AM
Subject: [boost] Metaprogramming VC++ - more of Loki ported

> In this (long) post I hope to accomplish three goals.
>
> 1. Port another piece of Loki (part of HierarchyGenerators.h) to be
>    compiler neutral. It is not far from there to Loki's abstract
>    factory. Maybe abstract factory would be an interesting piece of
>    Loki to examine in the near future.
>
> 2. I would like to see boosters develop a "metaprogramming portability
>    standards" document. The idea would be to offer support to authors
>    who wish to produce metaprograms or metalibraries that are compiler
>    neutral. The intent is not to force anyone to follow the
>    guidelines, but rather to share our collected wisdom on how to
>    produce artifacts that are as widely usable as possible. I will
>    start the ball rolling by sharing my approach and collecting some
>    of the known techniques into one article. I am hoping that others
>    will take some time to write up some of their techniques too. If
>    there is interest I maintain the results in a guidelines document
>    in the files section.
>
> 3. Solicit help in porting more of Loki and other metaprogramming
>    libraries. Is anyone else interested in helping to bring these
>    libraries to VC?