Subject: RE: Why We Should Use the STL (fwd)
From: Joaquín Cuenca Abela (cuenca@ie2.u-psud.fr)
Date: Mon Jun 05 2000 - 08:13:27 CDT
El Mon, 05 Jun 2000, escribiste:
> I thought I'd bring up a practical point here, but, before I do, I'd like to
> point out that I'm not a 'Luddite'. I've used the STL extensively (in fact,
> I even have some GPLed template classes on my web site to download), and I
> think it's great. Template classes are one of the best things about C++.
>
> However, don't overestimate the pervasivnes of the STL. Recently (i.e. in
> the last few weeks), at University, I tried to use STL classes in a project.
> I hit some problems though.
>
> The university provides an old (i.e. pre-egcs) version of gcc, and that's
> what I have to use. It makes some attempts at being STL compliant, but it's
> not. There are little differences. There are some /large/ differences (no
> namespace support). I'd predict that, should we go down the STL route, it
> will be very hard to support these 'couple of generations old' compilers
> (and, despite what soma are thinking, this /is/ important.
Well, this can be easily solved. We can made the STL a compiler option, just
like the gnome one or the debug one.
At the start, we can leave by default the non-STL compilation. After a bit of
testing, and if everything goes fine, we can switch the default. If there are
guys out there with some "strange" compiler ("strange" == not STL support), we
can mark he like a "hacker" and ask him to add an ABI_OPT_NON_STL=1 to his make
command.
Everybody agrees with that solution?
> People like me, using Linux at University and compiling their own copies of
> AbiWord, are /important/ to 'the cause'. They're the people that are
> 'spreading the word' about Abiword (it's amazing how many poeple are using
> AbiWord at uni now - at busy project times it's not unknown for about a
> quarter of the computers to be running AbiWord - this despite the fact that
> people could easily go upstairs and use Word).
Same here.
-- Joaquín Cuenca Abela e-mail: cuenca@ie2.u-psud.fr
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