Re: [boost] Boost libraries after C++0x acceptance

From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-10-08 16:52:06

Robert Ramey wrote:
> David Abrahams wrote:
> 
>>> Hence, adding say regex to the standard doesn't add any
>>> code to the standard.
> 
>> I don't know what you mean by "add code to the standard."
> 
> The standard include the implementation itself.  Only the
> interface that any implemenation has to adhere to.
> 
>>> It just certifies that anything that claims to be compatible with
>>> the C++ regex standard works as the standard says it does.
> 
>> No, it says that any C++ implementation that claims to be standard
>> compliant contains a conforming regex implementation.  There have as
>> yet been no moves toward "subsetting" of the C++ standard (other than
>> the "hosted"/"non-hosted" distinction -- look it up if you care).
>> Either an implementation provides everything the standard specifies,
>> and can therefore claim compliance, or not.  There's not going to be a
>> separate "C++ regex standard."
> 
> OK but this goes to the heart of my question.
> 
> Suppose I start my new compiler company and I write a C++ compiler
> which correctly translate C++ language as defined by the C++ standard
> to some machine language.
> 
> I don't know if there is any official designation for such a program
> such as "standard conformant C++ compiler"  but that's what
> we'll call it here.
> 
> Now I write the low-level code to implement things like fopen, etc
> in terms of the API of the OS it's going to run on.
> 
> Its not a "conformant C++ implementation" because it doesn't include
> all the libraries.  So, I just add STLPort and Boost libraries - which
> work with any "standard conformant C++ compiler".  Now I have
> a "conformant C++ implementation".  So once there exists a
> compiler which correctly implements the C++ language - the existence
> of a "conformant C++ implementation" is guarenteed.

There's nothing wrong with using STLPort as the C++ standard library, as 
long as it is conformant and the particular compiler implementation is 
able to use it without errors. Borland already did that in fact in the 
past. However I still do not think it is "guaranteed" unless the 3rd 
party C++ standard library is guaranteed to be conformant along with the 
compiler.