Re: [boost] [mpl] Abandoning old compilers

Subject: Re: [boost] [mpl] Abandoning old compilers
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-02-28 18:17:09

On 2/28/2015 1:43 PM, Peter Dimov wrote:
> Edward Diener wrote:
>> No. It never was tested. It was reverted before any testing was done
>> on the 'develop' branch with those changes.
>
> I'm not sure that lack of testing on current compilers is the main
> issue. The main issue is "lack of consensus" for dropping support for
> old compilers, which aren't tested.
>
> I'll say again what I always say when this issue comes up: these
> compilers are old. They are unlikely to be able to compile new Boost
> libraries. People who use these compilers can just use older Boost
> releases (and are probably forced to anyway).
>
> We should drop VC++6/7, bcc32, dmc, old sun support from MPL to make it
> more maintainable - provided that it is going to be maintained at all,
> or course.+

I believe it can be maintained by people who are interested in improving 
it if necessary. I doubt any one person can do it by himself. Cerainly 
the person changing MPL has to be responsible for his changes and make 
sure any change is checked against the regression tests of not only MPL 
but all the other libraries that use MPL.

My reason for supporting the changes for MPL which Stephen Kelly wanted 
to make is that hackery, no matter how brilliant, for compilers whose 
support for the C++ standard is poor in some way tends to obfuscate the 
understanding of how code works. If said compilers are outdated and have 
been superceded by newer versions which the vast majority of programmers 
now use, or if the compiler is not supported or marketed anymore, I can 
understand dropping such workarounds rather than carrying them around 
forever. Code then become easier to understand and change. One does not 
have to worry about some old compiler which no one rationally should be 
using when making additions or changes to a library.

The versions you mention above nobody is using seriously anymore unless 
they are forced to do so in the job which they have. In which case most 
of current Boost is unusable anyway for such old compiler/versions.