Re: [boost] Changes to VS 2012 config

Subject: Re: [boost] Changes to VS 2012 config
From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-12-03 14:15:21

(Follow-up from Herb posted below.)

On 11/30/2012 9:34 PM, Eric Niebler wrote:
> So here's the scoop from Herb. There are two separate things: the 
> rolling releases (like the just-released Update 1 which added XP
> support to VS'12), and the CTP releases (like the one that just
> that added variadic templates to the compiler). The former are
> officially supported, go-live products; the latter are not. There
> is, and should be, *no expectation* that the features delivered in
> the CTP releases will ever make it into the officially supported
> updates.
> 
> On other words, we should operate under the assumption that there
> will be no improvements in C++11 compliance of any officially
> supported Microsoft compiler until the next major release of Visual
> Studio.
> 
> I worded that very carefully. I believe it is 100% accurate. I will
> be directing Herb's attention to this thread so that he can comment
> if I got anything wrong.
> 
> What that means for Boost is up for us to decide. But given the
> above, I think it would be wise for us to add support for the CTP
> releases to Boost.Config using _MSC_FULL_VER so that we don't have
> to wait until VS.Next to start taking advantage of variadic
> templates (for example).

And as promised, here is the follow-up from Herb:

Herb Sutter wrote:
> I think you said it right, the only things I wanted to add were 
> that:
> 
> - I'm not recommending either for or against Boost making the CTP
> a target of interest for Boost. My $0.02 would be you probably
> wouldn't want to expend that effort since it's just a CTP.
> 
> - As I said in my Feb talk, these are "out-of-band (OOB)" CTPs to
> give people a look at our C++11 progress. Our goal is to try to "go
> dark" less on customers, and to enable earlier feedback (too often
> we had an all-too-short time between beta and release to respond to
> feedback, and this will help).
> 
> - The CTP is a separate stream from the new VS Update releases.
> It's yet TBD whether these will roll into a future VS Update, but
> since that hasn't been announced you shouldn't count it. DO however
> count on CTP features being in the next VC++ compiler release --
> including betas, and recall our betas sometimes come with a go-live
> license, as VC++ 2012 beta did this year for example.
> 
> - Don't assume "next release of VC++" means the historical "wait
> two years for the feature to appear in a product." As generally
> announced, Visual Studio is moving to faster update cycles, which
> means you should NOT expect to wait the historically-usual two
> years for these features to appear in a product release. (Though
> note that we haven't announced any release dates yet for VC++
> vNext.)
> 
> - As I said in my November talk, we promised to share more
> conformance news in first half of 2013.

Whether to support the CTP releases in Boost.Config is still an open
question.

-- 
Eric Niebler
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com