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How does one write a proposal to the C++ committee?

http://isocpp.org/std/submit-a-proposal

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I'll do it. This is a problem that probably comes up a lot, people then figure out some clumsy workaround and then forget about it. These workarounds are just that, and they impact the bottom line as programmers try and figure out some way of figuring them out.

This should be standard. No workaround required.

Jonathan hit the nail on the head.The C++ standard is essentially an open

software project staffed entirely by volunteers. There is no such thing as something that "should be standard" - there are only things that someone has written a proposal for, and then gone to the trouble of shepherding

source through the

standardization process.

Also, allocate a minimum of at least one year to achieve a successful shepherding, and that's for an obvious, uncontroversial change. ISO standards has large barriers to entry and for good reason: only those with stamina and the ability to repeatedly rewrite proposals to correctly include feedback will succeed. I'm not saying don't do it, because if there's a problem it should be fixed. I am saying that most of the work in writing a proposal isn't in writing and submitting one as that part is straighforward, it's in the shepherding part as Beman points out. Niall --- Opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of BlackBerry Inc.