Re: [boost] Boost on Sun CC without STLPort

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost on Sun CC without STLPort
From: pfee_at_[hidden]
Date: 2010-12-07 13:54:37

Beman Dawes wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Dave Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Dean Michael Berris
>> <mikhailberis_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>
>>> Is there any specific reason why Boost isn't tested against Sun CC
>>> without STLPort -- aside from the obvious reason that there's nobody
>>> running the regression tests on that platform? Is it something
>>> inherently wrong in Sun's standard library implementation that's
>>> preventing Boost from working properly on the Sun compiler?
>>
>> It used to be wicked noncompliant, to the point where it was a waste
>> of time to even try.  I'm not sure what the status today, though.
> 
> It is way better than it used to be.

My understanding is that in the early days of Sun CC 5.x, the compiler was 
non-compliant.  Over time, the compiler improved, but the libCstd ABI was 
set in stone.

The compiler has become more capable, but the RogueWave derived STL is still 
configured to be non-compliant in order to maintain the ABI set when the 
compiler was less capable.  I presume backwards compatability was considered 
more important than standards compliance.

Here's an OpenSolaris proposal to change this (not sure of the status of 
Solaris 11).  The RogueWave STL has become the Apache STDCXX project, 
http://stdcxx.apache.org/.  If that becomes the new STL on Solaris, then 
Boost may be usable with the default compiler and STL configuration.

http://arc.opensolaris.org/caselog/PSARC/2008/549/proposal.txt

However Boost + SunStudio/libCstd is likely to be non-starter as Boost 
requires a high level of standards compliance.  Even Boost + 
SunStudio/STLport didn't work for quite some time.  Here's a blog I used to 
follow as SunStudio/STLport approached usability with Boost.  The first 
version that worked out of the box was 1.34.1.

http://blogs.sun.com/sga/category/Boost

Thanks,
Paul