Re: [boost] [c++11]

Subject: Re: [boost] [c++11]
From: Andrey Semashev (andrey.semashev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-06-17 11:29:05

On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 6:45 PM, Niall Douglas <ndouglas_at_[hidden]>wrote:

> > I hope that you do realize that the Nov12 CTP does not come with a
> go-live
> > license, nor is recommended for any human consumption.
>
> Meh. First preview of VS2013 is only a month away. Nov 2012 CTP is usefully
> broken in ways easy to work around (parser bugs) rather than broken in
> unhelpful ways (unreliable code generation). It fills a useful slot until
> VS2013 arrives later this year.
>
> > It seems quite odd to me to spend significant GSoC resources on making a
> library
> > that targets only two compilers, and assumedly a rather narrow set of
> OSes.
>
> Actually it targets three compilers (+clang). I might add that Boost.ASIO
> only officially supports Windows, Linux, Solaris and OS X, and only the
> compilers MSVC7.1 or later and g++ 3.3 or later. Some would say that is a
> fairly narrow set in itself.
>

That's not quite what I read here:

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_53_0/doc/html/boost_asio/overview/implementation.html

And the compilers you mentioned as officially supported by ASIO actually
cover pretty much every compiler out there nowdays.

Comparing that with your requirement of the compiler that has not even been
released, it doesn't look like AFIO portability level will be even remotely
close to that of ASIO.

> Given that we knew that VS2012 would get variadic templates later this year
> (which it will in the form of VS2013), we decided to just go ahead with
> what
> C++11 features will be available to > 90% of C++ users by the end of 2013.
> That surely should satisfy the portability requirement, if not, then we'll
> work backwards until we reach > 95% of C++ users or > 99% if Boost peer
> review really, really wants it.
>

I think your estimate of "> 90% of C++ users by the end of 2013" is much
too optimistic. People in corporate sector are very reluctant to update
their toolsets, so expect people trying to use your new library with 3-5
year old compilers.

I know, C++11 has many fancy features and all, and I'm all for its adoption
too. But Boost also serves practical purpose, and if people can't use your
library then that just limits its usefulness. So unless you trying to make
some academic work here, the library should be more portable.