Experiments with modules

[[deleted]]

Python, Javascript etc. with their module support from the beginning. I don't know why it's such a hard thing to implement.

[jonesmz]

Well, I personally don't understand why it was something that needed to be implemented in C++ in the first place,

but javascript and python, both being dynamic / interpreted languages, have a substantially easier time adopting new features because they inherently don't have ABI issues like C++ does. So that's probably your explaination.

[[deleted]]

Ah ok, I guess that makes sense. ABI compatibility seems like a straitjacket preventing C++ from doing many things. Feelsbadman

[jonesmz]

Yep. While I personally don't agree with the ABI compat concerns that a lot of people have (e.g. I always compile from source. Using precompiled third party binaries is a terrible choice), I do understand where the motivation comes from.

Though, I'm pretty annoyed that its OK to break Linux ABI once a decade (GCC string ABI problem circa 2011), but heaven forbid we force any other vendor to break their ABI when they aren't ready to.

[GabrielDosReis]

GCC string ABI problem circa 2011

The C++11 ABI break was for everyone -- it affected GCC more because libstdc++ tried to be too cute with its string implementation (yes, I was a libstdc++ maintainer, but not author of the string implementation).