Re: [boost] Removing support for old compilers

Subject: Re: [boost] Removing support for old compilers
From: Joaquin M Lopez Munoz (joaquin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-10-13 08:30:40

Stephen Kelly <steveire <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> On 10/13/2013 12:11 PM, Joaquin M Lopez Munoz wrote:
> > Stephen Kelly <steveire <at> gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> On 10/12/2013 10:13 PM, Joaquin M Lopez Munoz wrote:
> >>> Hi Stephen
> >>>
> >>> As part of your initiative of removing support for old compilers,
> >>> are you building somewhere a change log in the form of either a list
> >>> of compiler deficiencies or compiler versions no longer supported?
> >> I have not built such a thing, but it's easy to create by reading the
> >> recent log of boost/config.
> > [...]
> > Frankly, it is hard to know what's going on by looking at this
> > log alone. In particular, nowhere's stated which versions of
> > MSVC have been dropped (I understand 6.0 and 7.0, but the log
> > does not say it),
> 
> That was done in this commit actually:
> 
>  https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/85272
> 
> That commit message doesn't specify the compiler versions affected
> either though, indeed.

You want this info to be spoken out oud and easily accessible;
now it is hidden deep into one of your many recent commits (worse
yet, 85275 was commited on your behalf by Daniel, so looking for skelly
is not guaranteed to catch every relevant commit.) Considering
that authors and, particularly, users do not customarily scan
Boost commits at svn.boost.org, chances are the majority of
affected people won't notice until Boost 1.56.

> >  and one has to investigate in order to find out
> > what other compilers are effecively dropped as a consequence of TPS
> > being required (the log mentions MPW and SunPro 5.3, but I guess
> > Digital Mars and GCC 2.x are also affected,
> 
> Only the config/compiler files for MPW and SunPro are affected by this
> commit.

Which are not listed in changeset 85272. Are there other compilers
affected?

> The DigitalMars one didn't define
> BOOST_NO_TEMPLATE_PARTIAL_SPECIALIZATION, nor did it do so before
> revision 85272, so if it needed the macro, it was already broken.

But at least one of your commits is related to Digital Mars:

https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/86043

> >  I have also the suspicion
> > that along the way you have removed macros and workarounds not
> > directly related to TPS or MSVC 6.0/7.0. 
> 
> Can you be more specific?

Changeset 86043 was the one smelly commit I spotted.

> > * Consider adding some [xxx] subject tag in your communications to
> > the mailing list so that users and maintainers can easily track
> > them (for instance, [compiler support])
> 
> I'll never understand why people want '[compiler support]' prefixing a
> message titled 'Removing support for old compilers' (both keywords are
> there) or 'Bumping borland, SunPro, mwerks and MPW compiler
> requirements' (MPW is more-specific than 'compiler support', so if
> someone cares about MPW, that's what they'll notice).

Prefixing, which is regularly used in Boost mailing lists, allows people
interested in a particular initiative to easily filter
and track related messages. Now, if I want to consult the prior
discussions on your efforts I have to look for your name and filter out
not related stuff.

Thank you,

Joaquín M López Muñoz
Telefónica Digital