Re: Using C++ in GCC is OK

[DJ Delorie <dj at redhat dot com>]

> I think that would be most unproductive and misguided.

Maybe I should step back and restate my original desires.

I don't want us to move *too quickly* towards an all-STL
implementation, and end up with a hairy mess that's hard to
understand.  I've had to debug our STL implementation before, it's not
easy for someone not used to the design.

I agree that NIH is bad.  But I also think mega-patches that do
nothing but replace a huge chunk of existing (working!) code with a
hugely complex interaction of every STL class known to science, is
equally bad.

I request moderation, not abstinence.

One approach to such a goal is to require that a migration limit
itself to replacing one aspect of the implementation *at a time*, get
that reviewed, applied, and understood, *then* migrate the next
aspect, etc.  Replace VEC with the STL vector class, but keep
everything else around it the same.  Get it reviewed.  Then replace
another piece and get it done.  Then another, and another, etc.

I also think that we'll have enough things to worry about just by
switching compilers, without adding the risks associated with
replacing working code.  One step at a time :-)