[Bro-Dev] Time for C++11?

Robin Sommer robin at icir.org
Mon Jun 23 08:43:59 PDT 2014


I'm guessing (and hearing :-) that most of us would like to start
using C++11 in Bro's code base. With compiler support now apparently
broad and robust, and our 2.4 dev cycle starting, I'm thinking it may
be a good time now to make the move.

What I propose is:

    - We decide which minimum versions of GCC and clang (and their
      stdlibs) we need to require.

    - As a double-check, we survey the main OS distributions and make
      sure they offer that by now.

    - We put cmake magic in place to check for these versions. [1]

    - We switch to compiling all C++ code with -std=c++11.

    - We allow use of C++11 features in new code.

    - Over time, we modernize old code as appropiate. Probably just
      ad-hoc for the most part, as we touch it; but maybe we can also
      put some time towards systematic changes, like with some of
      clang's transition tools.

Opinions?

Robin

[1] While we are at that, I suggest we also (re-)up the cmake version.
Probably hard to find a C++11 tool chain with a many-years-old cmake.


-- 
Robin Sommer * Phone +1 (510) 722-6541 *     robin at icir.org
ICSI/LBNL    * Fax   +1 (510) 666-2956 * www.icir.org/robin


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