Re: [boost] [range] broken PTS work-arounds

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-11-18 21:16:24

Eric Niebler wrote:
> Boost.range has a pile of work-arounds that made it "work" on old 
> compilers that don't do partial template specialization. Nobody is 
> testing those compilers anymore, so it's not surprising that those 
> work-arounds are now broken. To wit, the following program:
> 
>    #include <boost/range/iterator_range.hpp>
> 
>    int main()
>    {}
> 
> fails to compile on VC6. If nobody is interested in these old compilers, 
> fine. But it seems odd to be shipping work-around code that doesn't 
> work. Should all the PTS work-around code be removed? Or can it be 
> patched up without too much effort? I don't care either way, I just 
> don't want broken code to be shipped.

I'm of the opinion developers should start to remove workaround code 
that isn't being tested anymore, particularly if it makes the source 
code harder to read and maintain.

But to me that is something that should happen over time, not something 
worth stopping the 1.35.0 show for.

--Beman