Re: autoconf and STL

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005, David Boreham wrote:

> Apologies if this is a stupid question. I _have_ done
> a few days of fruitless searching already...
>
> So, I want to use autoconf/automake for a C++
> application that uses the STL. For example I'd like
> to be able to track down the libraries in various places.
> I'd also like to be able to build on Unixen with
> stlport, or on Cygwin using the MS compiler and STL.

It seems to me that the vast majority of C++ compilers currently in 
use provide a working version of the STL library.  At least, that is 
my own experience.  I think that "stlport" can be consided effectively 
defunct.

The Magick++ library as provided with ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick 
represents my experience with C++/STL portability.  It has been around 
in one form or another since 1998 or so.  The web page for Magick++ is 
at "http://www.simplesystems.org/Magick++/index.html";.  There are a 
few m4 macros included (most obtained from the autoconf macro archive) 
which test some STL features, but mostly test for basic C++ 
functionality.

Rather than assuming that anything that could possible be broken needs 
to be tested, I suggest that you start off with assuming that features 
defined by the C++ standard actually work and only implement 
work-arounds when necessary.  In most cases, compilation problems can 
be resolved with very minor (and portable) fixes to the code.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/