Re: [boost] Boost is supposed to serve *the entire C++ community; it isn't Boost's goal to serve Boost's community*

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost is supposed to serve *the entire C++ community; it isn't Boost's goal to serve Boost's community*
From: Klemens Morgenstern (klemens.morgenstern_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-05-22 07:57:00

Am 22.05.2016 um 13:49 schrieb Rainer Deyke:
> On 22.05.2016 11:12, degski wrote:
>>> I'm running an up-to-date operating system, and I switched to C++ 11 as
>>> soon as it became viable.  I can do that because I'm an individual.
>>> Organizations move more slowly, and the bigger they are, the slower 
>>> they
>>> move.
>>
>>
>> Not necessarilly, e.g. every Windows OS is built with the (their) latest
>> compiler... that's why they make it in the first place (at least in the
>> past)...
>
> I'm sure they do.  I'm also sure that they have legacy code dating 
> back a long time, so I don't know how modern their codebase actually 
> is and how many C++ 14 features they actually use. Presumably they use 
> at most the subset of C++ 14 that is actually supported by their 
> compiler, which is a good deal less than full C++ 14.
>
Unless you have a deprecated feature, you won't get problems switching 
to C++14. If you use a deprecated feature, you should redo you code 
regardless, they were dropped for a reason. I don't think we should 
force people to use new features, but not using them in new modules 
because of an ancient code base just seems bad practice to me.

>>> Wikipedia even says, "Visual C++ 6.0 is still quite popular".
>>>
>>
>> Don't believe everything they say on WP.
>>
>> The release schedule of gcc is here <https://gcc.gnu.org/releases.html>.
>> Now have a look and try to figure out why I thought was pretty funny...
>> (hint: the combination of the words "up-to-date" and "gcc 4.8")...
>
> I'm using the latest version of gcc provided by the latest version of 
> my OS.  Using a later version of gcc would require either compiling 
> from source or switching to another operating system. Yes, it's a 
> shame that Ubuntu isn't more proactive about making more up-to-date 
> compiler packages available, but there's nothing I can do about it.
>
>
Do you also use the boost package provided by ubuntu? Would be 1.54 
then, right?
There is something you can do: compile a new version and create a dpk 
for your coworkers. I get the thing about the codebase, but the argument 
"my ubuntu doesn't ship" is just nonsensical. By that logic you could 
not develop on windows at all, because it does not ship a compiler as 
part of the OS at all.
You're a C++ developers so compiling from source should not be a 
problem. Also you can get a newer version from an experimental 
distribution so you don't need to compile: 
http://packages.ubuntu.com/de/xenial/gcc-6-base Or get clang.
Saying "there's nothing I can do about it" is just plainly wrong.