Re: Standard header format.

[Phil Edwards <phil at codesourcery dot com>]

On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 01:58:50PM -0400, Steven T. Hatton wrote:
> On Tuesday 08 June 2004 13:24, Phil Edwards wrote:
> >
> > And yet, none of those programmers have ever tried implementing a C++
> > standard library as portable as this one.
> 
> First off, you don't know who these people are, or what they have done.  Some 
> of them have significant accomplishment to point to.  

I'm sure they do.  And still, it has nothing to do with libstdc++,
or portable C++ standard library implementations.  (There's ours, and
Dinkumware's, and the old SGI/HP one, and...?  Hmm.)


> > Perhaps some observations and tentative conclusions could be drawn from
> > this pattern?  Hmmmm...
> 
> Yes.  You do not understand what has actually been written.  Furthermore, I 
> presented supporting evidence for my position which included the API 
> documentation and header files from some of the largest C++ projects in the 
> world, and showed the clear correspondence between the header file and API 
> documentation.  You failed to address that in the least.

I guess polite hints won't work, so I'll spell it out semi-rudely.

You would like to believe something, but that thing is not true for the
C++ Standard library.  Maybe it's true for some other project somewhere,
and if so, that's fine.  But it ain't true here, and -- this seems to be
the point you have trouble grasping, if I may say so -- you're not going
to make it come true just by repeatedly insisting, "I think this should
come true, so all of you go off and do it."

You're /certainly/ not going to make it happen by arguing with and insulting
the libstdc++ maintainers.  Gabriel is one.  I am one.  Others who have told
you that you are mistaken about Real World Code are respected contributors.

You /could/ make it happen by rolling up your sleeves and doing the work.
You claim you know all these programmers that write their code like that,
and want libstdc++ to be the same -- great, enlist them, sit down as a
group, divide up the library implementation chapters, and start working.
Clause 20 is probably the easist one to start with, as it's mostly isolated.

Here's how to send us your patches:

    http://gcc.gnu.org/contribute.html
    http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/documentation.html#5

Now, quit trying to badger us into making a change for you that requires
a great deal of work for no benefit to us or our users.  If you and your
users want to change the code, you have the code, and instructions on how
to submit the changes back here.  That's how open source works.

HTH.  HAND.


-- 
Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it.
    - Brian W. Kernighan, in a plea for clear, straightforward code