Re: Switching to C++ by default in 4.8

[Diego Novillo <dnovillo at google dot com>]

On 4/10/12 12:05 PM, Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 10:50 AM, David Edelsohn<dje.gcc@gmail.com>  wrote:
>
> > Also, it will be more convenient to make this change incrementally,
> > but the GCC community probably will not see much benefit until the
> > transition is complete.  That also means developers asserting benefits
> > need to be realistic and separate their end vision from what actually
> > can be achieved in the short and medium term.
>
> Fully agreed.

Indeed.  My personal take on this is that it is going to be a gradual 
(for some glacially slow) change.  I think that debating these points in 
the abstract gains us very little.

Instead, each patch and/or API re-design should be discussed 
individually.  Patches will have specific metrics that can be collected. 
 API changes will be more of a bike shed, but it will at least lead to 
more concrete discussions.

The end goal for me is simple: modernize the code base to make it more 
attractive to future developers.  There is some balancing act to be 
done, in that we should cater to the existing developers as well.  But 
it is easier for us, we already know the code and can influence the 
transition.


Diego.