C++ extension "cast-as-lvalues": time to deprecate?

[Joe Buck]

On Fri, May 09, 2003 at 07:34:19PM +0100, Nathan Sidwell wrote:
> Matt Austern wrote:
> 
> > We said it was deprecated in the documentation, but we never enforced
> > that with a warning.  I think the schedule for removal will have to
> > look something like this:
> >  - Next release: put in a warning for this extension, and allow users
> >    to turn it off with a switch.
> >  - The release after that: don't allow users to turn the warning off.
> >  - Finally, in the next release: remove it entirely.
> > 
> > I could imagine doing this over the course of two releases instead
> > of three, but two is the absolute minimum.
> Normal practice for g++ at least appears to be two, add a warning in
> release N, remove it in N+1

There's a somewhat different issue here, though: what about strictly
conforming programs that malfunction because of the extension, in a way
that is surprising to the user?  Do we have to keep miscompiling them
for two more releases?