[boost] Automatically testing for compiler failures

From: Joel de Guzman (djowel_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-12-06 18:31:45

Hi,

Usually, we write regression tests that must compile and pass.
A compile failure is typically flagged as, ummm, failure.
There are times however when we explicitly want the compiler 
to fail on some code to check for API conformance. Here's an 
example from tuples:

   tuple<int, int, float> a;
#ifdef E11
   a = std::make_pair(1, 2); // should fail, tuple is of length 3, not 2
#endif

How then should we test for such forced-errors which are
basically negatives (i.e. a compiler success should be
a regression failure)? Is there a way to make bjam report
such failures as successes, for example?

TIA

Joel de Guzman
joel_at_[hidden]
http://www.boost-consulting.com