Re: [boost] New libraries implementing C++11 features in C++03

Subject: Re: [boost] New libraries implementing C++11 features in C++03
From: Christopher Jefferson (chris_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-11-24 09:00:23

On 24 Nov 2011, at 12:48, Dean Michael Berris wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:43 PM, Gregory Crosswhite
> <gcrosswhite_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> 
>> On Nov 24, 2011, at 10:17 PM, Dean Michael Berris wrote:
>> 
>>> Seriously, I don't know why people are blaming the libraries when the
>>> compilers are the ones generating these error messages. Am I missing
>>> something here?
>> 
>> Yes.  What you are missing is that people just looking to employ a library to make their lives easier don't case *whose* fault it is when the library fails to make their lives easier, they just stop using the library.  You can say that it is the fault of the compiler rather than the fault of the library, but that doesn't change the experience of using the library.
>> 
> 
> Well, then the person who doesn't put the work in to learn to use the
> library *and* learn to read the compiler messages properly is *the*
> problem. I seriously think this is a case of PEBKAC. No amount of
> library engineering will solve that kind of problem IMO.

Really? You think it is completely the user's fault that they get upset by regularly seeing 100k+ error messages in spirit, and choose to use another system like lex/yacc instead? I really hope not, as the size of the compile errors is the only reason I have stopped using libraries like spirit in projects I work on.

I view libraries like spirit as inspirational. They show the direction that I think C++ should take, and the power the language has. I really hope any future extensions (like concepts) are designed to help make libraries like spirit both more powerful and more user friendly. However, at the moment while they do the best that they can, it is unfortunately often not good enough in our current compilers.

Chris