[cfe-dev] C++ Language Support Library

[Chris Lattner]

On Nov 10, 2008, at 3:00 PM, Doug Gregor wrote:
>> For a random linux distro, for example, it would be fine to compile
>> libstdc++ with GCC, and clang should be able to work with it.
>>
>> I think that retaining compatibility with libstdc++ would be a very
>> worthwhile goal (as is supporting the apache library, stlport, and/or
>> whatever other ones exist, where reasonable).  What is the cost of  
>> doing
>> this?  Does it use crazy GCC extensions that we don't want to  
>> implement?
>
> libstdc++ aims to be pretty standard-conforming, and they avoid most
> crazy GCC extensions. As Sebastian noted, in GCC 4.3 and newer are
> using some C++0x features in their TR1 implementation. The biggest
> feature there is variadic templates, which---while not trivial---isn't
> terribly hard to implement if the template system itself is designed
> well.

Ok! I agree with Sebastian that libstdc++ support will be critical for  
clang C++ adoption.  While libstdc++ *is* a moving target, picking a  
very specific one (say, GCC 4.2's) should be useful enough in the  
short term, and doesn't require an '0x support to handle.  I picked  
4.2 specifically because it is used on the mac, but any other  
reasonable one would be good.

-Chris