Mail Archives: djgpp/2002/11/14/20:45:02
Thomas,
The doctrine of backward compatiblity dictates that any compiler written
for a language be able to compile any previous code without
modification, proprietary extensions excepted. Thus, a simple "Hello
World" type source must be recompilable on any version of compiler
design. The presumption here is that we're talking C++ and that gcc
intends to be C++. Further, it should be recompilable whether written
in C or C++.
If you what you assert is true, that one must now rewrite something as
simple as "Hello World" to meet new standards, my prediction is that
this oversight will be corrected once the economy gets going again. All
those companies out there with legacy code that won't recompile are
going to be quite besides themselves once they find out just what
happened. Either that, or C++ will be renamed D or whatever the next
generation will be called -- which is probably more appropriate.
In the meantime, you might want to advise to see if changing iostream to
iostream.h works. If it does, a lot more people would be greatful if
you pointed out the historical change that occurred. It will save a lot
of learning programmers a great deal of grief when realizing that it is
a system fault and not theirs.
Jeff
These opinions are mine and not necessiarily that of any other person or
organization.
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