[boost] lexical_cast: Needing to work for MSVC 6 (and similar)?

From: Terje Slettebø (tslettebo_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-01-30 11:55:55

Hi.

When testing it, I've found that the CVS version of lexical_cast apparently
doesn't work for MSVC 6 (at least with my setup). I get the following errors
when running the unit test:

boost/lexical_cast.hpp(178) : error C2059: syntax error : '<'
        boost/lexical_cast.hpp(180) : see reference to class template
instantiation 'boost::detail::lexical_stream<Target,Source>' being compiled
boost/lexical_cast.hpp(178) : error C2238: unexpected token(s) preceding ';'
        boost/lexical_cast.hpp(180) : see reference to class template
instantiation 'boost::detail::lexical_stream<Target,Source>' being compiled
boost/test/utils/basic_cstring/bcs_char_traits.hpp(120) : error C2143:
syntax error : missing ',' before '<'
boost/test/utils/basic_cstring/bcs_char_traits.hpp(120) : error C2059:
syntax error : '<'
boost/test/utils/basic_cstring/bcs_char_traits.hpp(120) : fatal error C1903:
unable to recover from previous error(s); stopping compilation

I also see that the current regression test doesn't include MSVC 6
(http://www.meta-comm.com/engineering/boost-regression/developer/conversion.
html). Because of this, Kevlin Henney and I was wondering whether or not
MSVC 6 support for this component (and components in Boost in general) is no
longer demanded, or in general, what the required conformance level is?

If MSVC 6 support is still needed, I guess the above problems should be
fixed. It seems to crash out in Boost.Test, as well.

I see there are a few other failures in the regression test for more
conformant compilers, though, and I'll look into these.

Regards,

Terje