[cfe-dev] [libcxx] Improvement to the implementation status page

[Marshall Clow via cfe-dev]

On Aug 3, 2020, at 5:15 AM, Robert Underwood via cfe-dev <cfe-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> 
> To whom it may concern,
> 
> I wasn't sure if this is more of a RFC/change proposal or a
> documentation bug, so I am sending this here first before filing a bug
> if required.
> 
> As an end-user, I find the [libc++ status][libcxx_status] page
> somewhat misleading/hard to follow, and I suspect I am not the only
> one (more on that  in a minute).

I understand, but that’s not the purpose of that page.
That page is there to track the implementation of every change made to the standard that affects libc++.
[ i.e, it’s there for the implementors, primarily, and secondarily users. ]

> I wanted to know if libc++
> implements std::span and the <span> header completely for C++20.

The correct check is to attempt to include #include <span>.
If that succeeds, then check the value of `__cpp_lib_span`.

Each significant revision of the span specification *should be* marked with a change to the value of that macro.
As a bonus, this is a cross-library way of checking.


> So I
> look at the [status page][libcxx_status], I am presented with a list
> of papers that were accepted and at which committee meeting the paper
> was approved to be merged into the standard. This is all fine and
> useful, but it obscures the fact that <span> for C++20 is actually
> implemented over several separate papers: P0122R7, P1085R2, P1024R3,
> P1394, P1872, P1976, P2116, and possibly others that don't have span
> in the title; Something that could easily be missed if just reading
> paper titles, lazy, or if one was less familiar with the committee
> process or just being lazy.

Right. And if that status page just said “Span: Implemented”
then it would be easy for it to be wrong - or worse, for us to believe that we had implemented all the bits of span, without noticing that we had missed (say) P2116.

> Now why do I think others find this misleading?  If you look at the
> [cppreference[cppreference] conformance table, it lists that libc++
> has had span support since version 7.0 which corresponds to the entry
> for "<span>" in the table from the [status page][libcxx_status], but
> this isn't true because in reality it's missing P1394.  I'm guessing
> whoever made the changes to the cppreference page made the same
> mistake that I did.
> 
> It would be very useful/helpful to be able to order the status page by
> the header/module unit affected.  I.E. all the papers that affect
> <any>, then all that effect <barrier>, then all that effect <bit>,
> etc...  This means that a paper such as P2116 could be listed under
> <span> and <tuple> because it removes std::tuple_size<> support for
> std::span<>.  I could understand it also being listed under <array>,
> <utility>, and <ranges> as these headers are also affected by the
> change since they also would expose the specialization of tuple_size.
> A section could be added for "all" for completely cross cutting
> standard library changes such as paper P1424 related to feature macros
> for constexpr support.
> 
> I believe these changes would also help implementers to ensure that
> all aspects of a standard library specific feature have been
> implemented.  Please let me know what you all think?

I think that it would lead to the opposite result.

— Marshall