Re: GSoC libstdc++ requirements/expectations

[Ian Lance Taylor <iant at google dot com>]

Daniel Kraft <d@domob.eu> writes:

> I'm interested in applying for GSoC for GCC, because I do want to
> learn about GCC's internals; being also a passionate C++ programmer, I
> think helping with development of libstdc++ (for 0x features, for
> instance) could be a nice project.
>
> What do you expect from a GSoC-student to work on libstdc++?  I do not
> yet have much knowledge about GCC's internals, nor do I know much
> about C++0x, but I believe I've quite good a knowledge and experience
> about C (will there be any work in plain C or is libstdc++ pure C++?)
> and C++ or the STL as of C++98.  Do I have to know something about
> POSIX (for instance) to work with threads and locks and the like?  Or
> is it ok to learn anything according to this one during the project,
> so I can use this as opportunity to learn about GCC?

Thanks for your interest.  You don't need to know much about GCC
internals to work on libstdc++.  libstdc++ is mostly pure C++ code,
though it does rely on a few GCC extensions.

To work threads and locks you would need to know POSIX, or at least
the subset used by libstdc++.

It's certainly OK to learn during the project, in fact we hope that
you do.

Ian