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Re: Spurious diagnostic messages

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Tim Rentsch wrote:
> Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>> Tim Rentsch wrote:
>>> Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> You won't see any discussions regarding which is the better standard
>>>> like we see here in C++ forums.  The C++ community embraces the new
>>>> standards because they give us what we have been asking for.
>>>
>>> C developers choose (to code to) different versions of the C
>>> standard for a variety of reasons.  It is partly in recognition
>>> of this that WG14 is more conservative with regards to what
>>> additions or changes are made.
>>
>> Isn't that argument self-contradictory?
>
> It doesn't seem contradictory to me.  Recognizing that there
> will be somewhat large time overlaps where multiple versions
> of the standard are being used, I think it's understandable
> and reasonable to follow a path of evolving the language
> slowly.  In particular WG14 is very reluctant to make changes
> that would alter the semantics of existing code.

Something binary literals wouldn't do...

I agree evolving the language slowly is the best approach, but this 
wasn't what happened with C99: it was too big a change for many 
conservative users to accept.

>> If WG14 were more conservative, C99 would have been more widely
>> accepted and C developers wouldn't be faced with the choice of writing
>> modern C or portable C.  The two would be the same.
>
> I don't think this implication follows, because there are lots of
> different forces affecting the decision to move to a new version
> of the language, not just how much the language has changed.  But
> in any case I believe you are using "more conservative" here in
> a different sense than I was.  I meant only that WG14 is more
> conservative than the corresponding group for C++.  That still
> leaves a lot of room to change the language significantly (if
> that is what is thought appropriate).

A significant factor affecting the decision to move to a new version of 
the language is vendor support.

WG14 may be more conservative than WG21, but that didn't help them to 
produce a universally accepted standard...

-- 
Ian Collins

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Re: Spurious diagnostic messages Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-09-26 08:51 -0700
  Re: Spurious diagnostic messages Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-27 12:01 +1300
    Re: Spurious diagnostic messages Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-10-04 09:24 -0700
      Re: Spurious diagnostic messages Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-10-05 17:32 +1300

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