Package: wnpp Severity: wishlist The new g++ 3.0 and libstdc++3 adhere more strictly to the C++ standard than have previous versions of g++, and many of the extensions in g++ are now gone. Consequently, there is a lot of C++ code that doesn't compile with g++ 3. Furthermore, some versions of g++ had bugs, missing library features, and the like, and some incompatible extensions have crept into g++ 3.
This is already causing a problem with the hppa port, which is lagging on its build percentage because of its lack of a g++ 2.x (among other reasons). Furthermore, it could very easily cause a greater problem for whichever Debian release chooses to abandon gcc versions less than 3. Gxxcompat aims to help mitigate this problem. It consists of a set of autoconf macros and a library. The autoconf macros detect the state of various incompatibilities and extensions in g++ versions; the library provides implementations of some of those extensions for versions that don't have them. Use of the library in source code should go something like this: // Get your autoconf macros defined. #include "config.h" // Define what extensions this source file needs. #define GXXCOMPAT_NEEDS_FSTREAM_FD // Pull the extensions in. #include <gxxcompat.h> It's almost definitely incomplete, but the cases that are implemented all work. It's not going to get any more complete by me holding on to it, so I intend to upload it and let people start using it. A few small bugs, some more documentation, and Debian packaging are all that remain to finish before the first version can be uploaded. If I get time, I'd like to write an autoconf-style analysis tool that will do most of the heavy lifting for lazy maintainers and overworked porters. :-) I wrote the library, so I am both the upstream and Debian maintainer. The license is BSD-style (the changes amount to replacing the UCB-specific bits with references to me). It's not available yet; its official "upstream" release will be its installation into unstable.
