On Sat, Jun 30, 2012 at 08:38:57AM +0100, John Maddock wrote:
I think this is the case with boost.lockfree. It is not easy to implement it without atomics, and there are no atomics for the C++03 (yet).
I already suggested that Tim add Lockfree to trunk with only C++11 support, so you're arguing against the wind, I guess.
And thus begins the downfall.
One library will start to depend on Lockfree, and soon it's all a right mess of trying to get anything to work on a perfectly conformant C++03 compiler.
Apologies for not following this discussion in full - but Boost has *always* pushed the compiler envelope. Right from the start libraries required C++98 features that at the time were implemented in very few compilers. It's not new for a library to be at the bleeding edge waiting for it's time to come.
There's a major difference between C++98 and C++11. Before '98, there was no standard. Before '11, there is a perfectly usable standard that bajillions depend on. I'm just fearing that there'll be more premature C++11 taint by the day in Boost, making it less and less usable on C++03 as versions come out. -- Lars Viklund | zao@acc.umu.se