Re: [boost] [1.35.0] Release criteria compilers

From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-10-07 12:23:52

Jeff Garland wrote:
> Gennadiy Rozental wrote:
> 
>> I must say I feel very similar.
>>
>> I believe Bemans approach is way too pessimistic. And kinda deminishing to the 
>> configuration he has no direct access to ;) How VC 8.0 failure is more 
>> critical than let's say gcc on sparc solaris? Assuming that both have similar 
>> tester resources. 
> 
> They haven't typically had similar resources.  We've usually had 2-3 VC 
> 8 testers and maybe one gcc on solaris.
> 
>> What I beliee we need is more objective criteria for what is "release 
>> compiler". Specific requirements to number of testers and testing turnaround 
>> time comes to mind.
> 
> Instead of getting bogged down in trying to define requirements, I think 
> we should simply agree on a the 'primary platform list' (essentially 
> what Beman is doing).  Don't think of this list as release compilers, 
> just a good cross section of the platforms that provide a) good testing 
> support and b) high standards compliance -- thus minimizing the typical 
> hackery needed to port to this compiler. Again, no compiler/platform is 
> being excluded from testing and we want library authors and people with 
> an interest in a platform to continue to port at their discretion -- but 
> I hope by now we'd all agree that bugging authors of new libs to port to 
> VC6 and holding the release is a bad policy because it harms more users 
> than it helps.

 From an end user's perspective I think it is really important, for a 
given release and library of Boost, to know whether or not a particular 
compiler is supposed to work for a particular library. The regression 
tests do not, unfortunately, always give the end user that information. 
While I understand the concern for getting out timely releases of Boost 
which are guaranteed to support a subset of highly conformant compilers, 
  this way of doing things will only make it even more difficult for 
end-users of those compilers which are not part of that subset to 
determine whether the latest release of a particular Boost library is 
supported when using their compiler.