Re: [boost] C++ announcements coming tomorrow

Subject: Re: [boost] C++ announcements coming tomorrow
From: Paul Mensonides (pmenso57_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-11-05 09:56:36

On 11/5/2012 4:26 AM, Olaf van der Spek wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 12:08 AM, Paul Mensonides <pmenso57_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> WRT typeof, something like decltype would have come around without GCC's
>> typeof.  WRT to long long, nothing in the standard says int == long.
>
> But for a given platform you can't easily change the size of a type.

Why not?  I mean, really, why not?  Backward compatibility for code 
which assumes things that it shouldn't?  Perhaps we should take the hit 
now for things like this rather than deal with it forever.  What's next, 
long long long?  In some ways, that's a little like the Y2K scenario. 
Replace assumptions with verifiable fact (especially when you have all 
of the std typedefs that exist now) even if you have to meta-compute it.

Don't get me wrong, I recognize that that would be a huge short-term 
task, but, in the long run, the work required as a result of 
over-prioritizing backward compatibility dwarfs it.

Regards,
Paul Mensonides