Re: [boost] The Lonely Song of the MPL Maintainer -- or Boost support for antediluvian compiler and the future supprot of C++11

Subject: Re: [boost] The Lonely Song of the MPL Maintainer -- or Boost support for antediluvian compiler and the future supprot of C++11
From: Joel falcou (joel.falcou_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-08-16 03:16:59

On 16/08/11 08:48, Nevin Liber wrote:
> On 16 August 2011 00:07, Robert Ramey<ramey_at_[hidden]>  wrote:
>
>>    This new version would work only be guarenteed to work on
>> the most modern compilers.
>
>
> This assumption seems to permeate this entire thread, and I'm not
> understanding it.  The compatibility problem is about to get worse, not
> better, IMHO.
>
> We are moving from a mature language spec to a brand new one.  I fully
> expect changes between compiler revs (let alone different compiler vendors)
> to be much more prolific in the next couple of years than they have been in
> the previous couple of years, as features are implemented, the language
> itself is fixed, tools are debugged, etc.
>
> Draw a line in the sand and get rid of the old cruft if you desire, but the
> fundamental problem is not going to go away...

Beware, there is two issues raise din my original post. Let's forget 
about c++11 for now, this is an orthogonal problem. The main question 
is: should we sacrifice lisibility and maintainer time to support 
compiler from before 1492 (hyperbolically speaking of course), compilers 
which are usually so specific the users probably never upgrade boost anyway.

In short, is it time to prune support for very very very old compilers.