Re: [Monotone-devel] C++11

[Markus Wanner]

Hey Hendrik,

On 05/13/2014 05:17 PM, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> monotone should definitely be compilable on C++11.

It is. That was one of my goals with release 1.1.

However, wit that release, C++11 still isn't enabled by default (at
least not by our configure script). nvm.optional-cxx11 would change that.

> But it's going to be
> a while before all platforms have C++11 compiler.

Absolutely. We cannot (and haven't ever) support "all" platforms,
though. See my list in response to Stephen.

> I'm thinking of 
> things like long-term-support Ubuntu and Debian Squeeze, older Mac's 
> which do not receive new OS/X's any more, Windows XP machines, and so 
> forth.  There are probably even older platforms still in active use 
> somewhere.  It's not unusual at all for servers to be running stable 
> long-term-support versions of software and foregoing the latest and 
> greatest for stability.

Please keep in mind that you don't need the new compiler to *run*
monotone. But yeah, I take this as a vote against adapting C++11 now.

> I have noo idea how many of these old systems use monotone.

Sadly, not many. Just one number: Debian popcon lists around 300
installs. Overall. That's 0.13% percent of all popcon-counted systems.
(And that includes my several Debian build animals ;-) )

> I maintain that monotone should remain compilable on older C++ 
> compilers.  At very least, the pre-C++11 version of monotone should be 
> its own legacy branch and should continue to receive bugfixes for a 
> long time, and should remain net-sync-compatible with the current one.

I heard you.

> Of course, the operational questions here are *when* the transition 
> should occur, and how long dual-operation should be supported when it 
> does.

I think the answer to the dual-operation duration is obvious: Zero. We
just don't have the man-power.

What do you think would be a good time to switch to C++11?

I'm a bit concerned that botan is switching to C++11. (And just notice
that botan even states gcc-4.7 as the minimum requirement for 1.11 onwards.)

Regards

Markus Wanner

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