Re: [boost] Report from Berlin C++ Standards Committee meeting

From: Aristid Breitkreuz (aribrei_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-04-13 13:37:12

Hello,

Am Donnerstag, den 13.04.2006, 08:20 +0100 schrieb Andy Little:
> C++'s main problem is that it doesnt have enough standard libraries to compete
> with (say) Java.

Very well known but true.

>  Two obvious ones still not on the horizon are Unicode and GUI.

Oh yes, the first one really.

But I do _not_ believe C++ needs a standardised GUI API. Really it would
probably end up like the string class as it is: either not used or used
unwillingly. (And the string class is way smaller than a reasonable GUI
library!) It is not possible to add a good GUI library to the standard
and finish it in reasonable time. People should really remove this from
their minds. Everything else, sockets, UNICODE, all those nice boost
libraries, we need them and they can be done because they are operating
in more or less standardised and overseeable fields. GUI is different.
And effort should really be concentrated into doing the other things
right.

Please, please don't stop making GUI toolkits but (please) stop crying
them into the standard. My feeling says they do not belong there.

Oh and: even regarding those libraries that are not part of the
standard, there is _no_ good GUI library available that is free to use
and open-source.

> ( I am going to try to do something about the GUI, though there must be much
> greater GUI experts than me that could do a better job).  A major reason given
> by the committee AFAICS (in GUI case) was that the committee doesnt have enough
> time to deal with it. Yet there seems to be adequate time to discuss the
> addition of more complexities to the language itself. A great language missing
> some essential standard libraries. Will that be C++ epitaph?

I hope not. And hope is essential :-).

> 
> bemused
> Andy Little

with a bit too strong feelings,
Aristid Breitkreuz

> 
> 
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