Re: [boost] [Hana] Informal review request

Subject: Re: [boost] [Hana] Informal review request
From: Louis Dionne (ldionne.2_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-03-08 13:20:42

Mathias Gaunard <mathias.gaunard <at> ens-lyon.org> writes:

> On 05/03/2015 15:41, Louis Dionne wrote:
> 
> > - Lack of support for mainstream compilers: The library is now almost fully
> >    functional with Clang 3.5. A GCC 4.9 port with reduced functionality is
> >    also underway on the `redux` branch.
> 
> This might sound discouraging, but I consider any library that doesn't 
> work fully with GCC 4.9, Clang 3.5 and MSVC14, which are already 
> bleeding-edge compilers, to not be suitable for real use, and thus not 
> suitable for inclusion into Boost either.
>
> The risk is that this library might never be more than a mere curiosity.

First, Clang 3.5 is now fully supported. Second, you imply that any
library which uses variable templates, extended constexpr or other 
C++14 features that are not well supported yet is not suited for 
real use. I humbly disagree.

On the contrary, I think it is a good occasion to push compiler implementers 
a bit by making more cutting-edge libraries available to the large public. 
Then, there will be a bigger incentive to support C++14 properly, but most
importantly there will be more bug reports comming in, which triggers
improvement.

I hope the rest of this community is not feeling the same towards
cutting edge libraries. I would suspect that some of the most 
groundbreaking libraries that are now well accepted and supported 
by compilers were in Hana's position when they started.

Regards,
Louis