RE: [boost] Lazy Metaprogramming Library

From: Paul Mensonides (pmenso57_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-16 17:19:43

> -----Original Message-----
> From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden] 
> [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Terje Slettebø

> (Note: I 
> > use pattern matching for simplicity. Lazy metaprogramming should be 
> > doable without pattern matching. I also have no more sympathy for 
> > lousy compiler implementers. RANT: How many years does it take to 
> > correctly implement a language (C preprocessor) described 
> in about 20 
> > pages of prose? For some it seems to take more than a decade.)
> 
> Do I detect a hint of bitterness? ;)

Plenty.

> I'm sure Paul Mensonides is struggling with similar things, 
> his Chaos library being only usable on the most conforming 
> compilers (from what I understand).

I'm not exactly struggling with it.  I'm simply not supporting any preprocessor
that is buggy.  The purpose of Chaos is to see how far that I can push it, to
see how many techniques that I can create, etc., not to make a practical tool.
That is only a side-effect of the underlying motivation, and that side-effect
only happens to come into play on very good preprocessors.

> I guess some of the reason might been that it hasn't been 
> much of a priority for compiler vendors. It's rather unlikely 
> that a huge number of customers come to them, asking for 
> better preprocessor support... :)
> 
> On the other hand, with PP-programming having been become 
> more "mainstream", being used quite a bit in Boost, for one 
> thing, this might change.

Unlikely.  Boost is so full of workarounds for broken compilers (and
preprocessors) that it doesn't really encourage vendors to fix their compilers
much at all.  Furthermore, most vendors lack a fundamental motivation:
implementing the language according to the standard because it is the right
thing to do from an ethical standpoint.  With the preprocessor specifically,
vendors have a low opinion of heavy preprocessor use based on years of invalidly
attributed stigma.  That opinion, in turn, significantly lowers their desire to
fix their preprocessors.

Paul Mensonides