Re: [boost] [C++0x] Report from Frankfurt committee meeting

Subject: Re: [boost] [C++0x] Report from Frankfurt committee meeting
From: Jeffrey Bosboom (jbosboom_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-08-12 16:57:39

Sid Sacek wrote:
> I mean, the C# people come out with language changes every couple of
> years without any fuss or muss. But the C++ masterminds, I mean all
> those guys with PHD's as well as the programming gurus, cannot figure
> out the next stage after 10 years. What's going on?

I'm not familiar with C#, so I don't know what these language changes 
are.  They may be less complex than concepts.  Also, C++ is used in many 
more applications than C#, so there are more potential impacts to 
consider when making language changes.  Finally, C# can be changed 
unilaterally by Microsoft, without concern for other users.

> Does it really matter what comes out of this committee?  I don't care as
> long as I have something better, and I don't think the compiler writers
> care either; they're just waiting for something, anything.

Would you accept something worse?  That's what we almost ended up with 
(in my opinion, anyway).

The concern was that not only would concepts in their current form not 
be used by "everyday programmers", but also that there would be no way 
to fix this later -- once (some) people start using it, it becomes a 
backwards-compatibility concern.

--Jeffrey Bosboom