Re: Problem compiling sparse-xdiv.cc (typename)

[Jaroslav Hajek]

On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 11:01 PM, Michael Goffioul
<address@hidden> wrote:
> On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 4:20 PM, Jaroslav Hajek <address@hidden> wrote:
>> However, the code seems valid to me. I think that typename always
>> applies to the following qualified dependent name, regardless of any
>> operators following. So I suspect it's a MSVC++ bug. I think our
>> current (kind of unofficial) policy is that only the mainstream gcc
>> version is worth putting workarounds into Octave code itself (if the
>> code is otherwise OK).
>
> Personally, I find that policy unfortunate, especially when you can
> get the same result with something that could work on more compilers.
> But I'm not the one who decides.

Maybe I didn't express this well. By "policy" I meant that few of the
active contributors are willing to invent workarounds for compilers
they don't use, or to clutter it to please buggy compilers they do
use. It's not something that is enforced.

So the result is that I won't do it for you, but feel free to submit a
patch. If you can express the same without compromising the clarity or
efficiency of the code, then I don't see a reason not to apply it.
What I would like to avoid is making the code more clumsy to
workaround a bug that will disappear in next version of the compiler
in question, but the workaround will stay there. That only seems
acceptable to me if one clearly marks the workaround and the straight
way and makes a sort of a promise that he will watch for the bug to be
fixed.

> I find this a little unfortunate as well , as many (not so) older systems are
> still running on gcc-3.

Finding something unfortunate is not constructive. I think there are
more places that gcc 3 chokes on and they aren't probably that easy to
workaround. But feel free to suggest a constructive solution.

regards

-- 
RNDr. Jaroslav Hajek
computing expert & GNU Octave developer
Aeronautical Research and Test Institute (VZLU)
Prague, Czech Republic
url: www.highegg.matfyz.cz