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Re: [C++] System Requirements
- From: Ben Longbons <brlongbons at gmail dot com>
- To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>
- Cc: Jan Kratochvil <jan dot kratochvil at redhat dot com>, gdb at sourceware dot org
- Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 12:09:31 -0800
- Subject: Re: [C++] System Requirements
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
- References: <CA+XNFZO6-rhG_mnRtg_B_y6R3FaFRWzb_ED4G=Yf1gdNs4d+gw at mail dot gmail dot com> <20131215153129 dot GA27931 at host2 dot jankratochvil dot net> <CA+XNFZNM2x6Gz4NNZPSYUiqE1nm-cOb+aVtRWWiuhJais60oOg at mail dot gmail dot com> <83wqj4d33e dot fsf at gnu dot org>
On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> Perhaps you never tried to use outdated versions of GDB too seriously
> for too long. GDB constantly gets more and more useful features and
> solves more and more bugs, so using an old version is a PITA.
Well, I can state with absolute certainty that there are *some* bugs
in gdb that simply will not be fixed without relying on some subset of
C++11 features.
It's not that they couldn't theoretically be fixed otherwise, they
just wouldn't be detected. For a while I had to maintain two branches
of my own software, and I remember specifically backporting one fix to
the pre-C++11 stable branch for a problem that many users had noticed,
but which eluded bughunts until I used some C++11 stuff.
In some cases it is possible to hide the feature behind the
development mode check, in some cases it is not. GCC 4.3 and 4.4
introduce a lot of features that can't be used conditionally.
> It's
> not like GDB development aims only at supporting newer compiler
> versions, you know. Just look at the commit logs, and you will see.
I haven't been able to get the specific information I looked for as to
exactly which versions *are* supported and which have been for
previous releases.
>> Regardless of where we set the bounds, do you agree to the *concept*
>> of having two different modes?
>
> I don't. There's no reason to have that, and it certainly adds to the
> overhead.
I do strongly believe it is beneficial to keep the two modes very
similar, but with the specific differences I have in mind, it would be
rather unlikely to commit something that failed in one mode and worked
in the other.
-Ben