Re: [boost] Boost and clang under Windows

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost and clang under Windows
From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-09-30 16:03:52

On 29 Sep 2013 at 17:15, Chandler Carruth wrote:

> > I think there are multiple issues at work here, and the list is
> > conflating them all as one. It might be worth disambiguating them:
> 
> I was going to write just such an email....

Occasionally great minds can think alike ... :)

> We also care about and will work to support VS2013 as it sees updates, but
> we're still getting started here. Some things may work better with Clang,
> and some things may not work at all. For example, I don't think we have any
> of the Visual Studio or MSBuild integration.

I don't know if VS2013's preprocessor has fixed __VA_ARGS__ handling 
yet, which is severely broken. The bug report at 
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/380090/ 
suggests no. I really wish Microsoft would add a new compiler switch 
to turn on EDG's preprocessor, or some standards conforming 
preprocessor implementation, and deprecate the current one.
 
> > Item 2 is valuable to clang developers for debugging clang, and not
> > really anyone else.
> 
> I'm hopeful that Clang's Windows support is valuable to Boost developers
> and other developers using C++ on Windows.

Ok, replace "not really anyone else" with "not really anyone else 
using Boost", which is what I didn't make clear.

As you know, I would just love - if my next employer allows me - to 
implement a standard component object layer for C++, as one the 
biggest scalability constraints facing all users of C++ is change 
ripple propagation, and the only technology to have done something 
useful on that is Microsoft's COM which, partially through its age 
and partially through deliberate restraints during its design, hugely 
limits exposing much of anything modern C++ through its ABI. A huge 
part of any such standardised component object layer must be clang's 
AST, particularly if C++ Modules ever starts looking production 
ready. And therefore, if clang could gain the ability to cope well 
with MSVC-only code, that chops a huge chunk of work off what I have 
in mind.

In other words, I too have a huge vested interest in clang as a 
direct substitute for MSVC so I can use your AST to package up MSVC 
binaries. Basically I wish you all god's speed.

Niall

-- 
Currently unemployed and looking for work.
Work Portfolio: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/nialldouglas/