Re: [PATCH 1/3] Introduce gdb::unique_ptr

[Pedro Alves <palves at redhat dot com>]

On 10/12/2016 12:44 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Cc: markus.t.metzger@intel.com, brobecker@adacore.com,
>>         gdb-patches@sourceware.org, jan.kratochvil@redhat.com,
>>         simon.marchi@ericsson.com
>> From: Pedro Alves <palves@redhat.com>
>> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2016 12:25:21 +0100
>>
>> On 10/12/2016 12:04 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>>>> Cc: brobecker@adacore.com, gdb-patches@sourceware.org,
>>>>         jan.kratochvil@redhat.com, simon.marchi@ericsson.com
>>>> From: Pedro Alves <palves@redhat.com>
>>>> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2016 11:11:50 +0100
>>>>
>>>>>   . Should we start using C++11 features in GDB?
>>>>
>>>> I would hope that no one would suggest that we shouldn't use
>>>> C++11 features just because they like C++03 better than C++11.
>>>> That would make no sense.
>>>
>>> It would make perfect sense if we decide to require a version of GCC
>>> older than 4.8.1 as a prerequisite for building GDB.
>>
>> I can't see how that is a reply to what I said.  I said _liking_ C++11
>> better over C++03.  As in: "I'm just not going to use
>> C++11 features, because I hate C++11, but C++03 is perfectly
>> fine".
> 
> That's a no-brainer, 

Good that you agree.

> but if that was the only thing you were saying,

That was not the only thing I was saying...  That was preamble
for the next paragraph:

  "In my mind, the only reason you'd not use C++11 over C++03
  is simply because you couldn't because you don't have a ..."

It seems like we keep talking past each other.

> That decision
> has IMO very little to do with whether we like C++03 more or not,
> because if we go by that criterion alone, we should take Jan's
> suggestion and switch to the latest version as soon as it is released,
> right?

Right.  By that criteria, I'd switch to C++17 in a heart beat.
C++17 can make C++ code look significantly simpler and clearer.
Class template deduction makes me drool a bit:

 http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/class_template_deduction

Yet, I won't miss it nowhere nearly as badly as I miss C++11 features.

As I've been saying, IMO it's reasonable compiler availability
in distros that should matter.  GCC 7, which will be the first
release to fully support C++17 (or at least close enough) is not
even released yet.

Thanks,
Pedro Alves