[cfe-dev] libc++ on Windows (Rationale)
Howard Hinnant
hhinnant at apple.com
Tue Aug 24 09:05:34 PDT 2010
On Aug 24, 2010, at 12:02 PM, Fernando Pelliccioni wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 11:57 AM, Howard Hinnant <hhinnant at apple.com> wrote:
> On Aug 24, 2010, at 8:03 AM, Fernando Pelliccioni wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am trying to compile LibC++ on WinXP (32) using MinGW (GCC 4.6).
> >
> > I've seen some extensions are used, as the "xlocale.h", which makes it difficult to compile in Windows using MinGW. No way to use MSVC.
> >
> > I wonder..., What is the goal of the creators of Clang and LibC++ in terms of portability? Is there any reason why Windows should not be supported? Or just a matter of time, is started by the Unix-Like operating systems?
> >
> > I would like to contribute to the project, to make Clang and LibC++, in the future, the default compiler C++ for almost any platform.
>
> I can speak for libc++: libc++ is meant to be a high quality open source C++ standard library. The initial implementation has been targeted straight at Apple's platforms, with the notion that it should take advantage of the underlying OS when available and where appropriate (e.g. <xlocale.h>). One of the reasons for open sourcing this code however is so that others are free to port libc++ to other platforms where they can take advantage of other OS's features.
>
> Porting <locale> is going to require significant effort and knowledge of the target OS, unless it is acceptable to the porters to support only a minimum "C" locale. Such minimal support was not acceptable to me for the Apple platforms.
>
> At no time has it been envisioned that every line of code in libc++ shall be portable. Instead it is envisioned that libc++ will have to be adapted to different OS's to make the most out of each OS. The goal of any C++ standard library should be to (when necessary) consist of non-portable code so that its clients don't have to write non-portable code. Naturally though, libc++ code should not be gratuitously non-portable.
>
> -Howard
>
>
> Thanks Howard,
>
> You said that libc++ is open for others to implement it on other platforms.
> Did you mean that these other implementations should be separated from libc++?.
> Or these implementations can be included in the libc++ code? (A single library with conditional compilation according to platform).
I meant the latter. There is already evidence in <__config> (http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk/include/__config) of people contributing to non-Apple platforms.
>
> I offer my time to try to make libc++ cross-platform.
That's very generous of you, thanks!
-Howard
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