Re: [boost] BOOST_NO_CXX11_CONSTEXPR and msvc-14.0

Subject: Re: [boost] BOOST_NO_CXX11_CONSTEXPR and msvc-14.0
From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-07-23 13:53:28

On 23 Jul 2015 at 4:21, Glen Fernandes wrote:

> >  I'm finally beginning to run into things older GCCs and clangs won't
> > compile that VS2015 will, and that's *amazing*. 
> 
> I don't know if it's so amazing that version of VC released only days ago
> [and almost two years after its predecessor] can compile things that other
> compilers released more than a year ago [and who release much more
> frequently] could not. 
> 
> (Unless that was humor or a jibe at VC for its track record of conformance).

No, it's entirely serious. But then I'm a fan of MSVC and especially 
the team they have behind it whom are all seriously impressive 
engineers at least out of the ones I've met. MSVC has lots of 
outstanding features no other compiler has:

* It's vastly faster to compile, like 5x-10x faster as it's not an 
AST based compiler like clang and GCC.

* It has the best debugger in the business, and still far outclasses 
anything in the GCC/clang ecosystem. I still develop for Visual 
Studio first because of that debugger and IDE which also debugs 
Python very well indeed.

* It generates some very unique assembler which still beats the 
assembler coming out of clang/LLVM, though it has fallen behind GCC 
in recent years.

* It has a totally unique interpretation of the C++ standard.

* It's the last full stack compiler ecosystem left, and a major 
bulwark against a clang monoculture.

My only criticism about the compiler really is it accepts too much 
C++ 11/14 which won't compile on GCC nor clang, so I am still forced 
to run several passes of mingw-w64 from the command line before each 
git commit of new code.

If Visual Studio had a switch for the EDG red underlining tool to 
switch on "don't pretend to be MSVC" in the IDE I'd be very pleased, 
it would save me a lot of time.

Even better of course if Visual Studio dual compiled your code with 
both MSVC and winclang and gave you a combined set of warnings.

I'd also like if Visual Studio could make use of the clang-tidy lint 
tool. Since Chandler turned me onto that tool I've found it 
remarkably useful for catching accidental slip ups.

But all these are minor things. VS2015 is by far the best Visual 
Studio ever, and that's what matters.

Niall

-- 
ned Productions Limited Consulting
http://www.nedproductions.biz/ 
http://ie.linkedin.com/in/nialldouglas/