[vtk-developers] [vtkusers] Removing support for VS 8 and GCC < 4.1

Wed Jun 10 11:31:37 EDT 2015

Maybe one way of addressing this issue would be to keep two versions
maintained for a longer period? For example, we could commit to maintaining
(minor bug fixes and limited testing only) VTK 6 for 3 years after we
release VTK 7... That way customer that are stuck on old compiler can
benefit from bug fixes and testing longer. If they want newer features,
they would have to update. Given that we are likely to move to VTK 7 and
then 8 pretty quickly, even longer than 3 years may be warranted.

I would argue for aiming for (mostly) C++ 11 by VTK 8, probably around late
2016.

-berk

On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com>
wrote:

> There may be customers that have products relying on older compilers.
> Switching compilers is not always an easy process since they must port
> their own code to the new compilers.
>
> I think we should be conservative and only remove compilers when they
> get in the way of progress of the vtk code base.
>
> My 2 cents.
>
> On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 10:07 AM, Peter Karasev <karasevpa at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > +1 for the aggressive point of view. C++11 makes life so much easier it's
> > practically criminal to make VTK users suffer due to legacy support.
> >
> >        Peter Karasev
> >
> > On Jun 9, 2015 11:30 AM, "David Cole via vtk-developers"
> > <vtk-developers at vtk.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> Definitely +1.
> >>
> >> Agree with what Utkarsh said, plus: people writing code should be
> >> using modern tools for all sorts of good reasons: performance,
> >> security, the tools themselves are just better...
> >>
> >> I would go so far as to say it's reasonable that the dev/trunk/master
> >> branch of a project should only support the two most recent stable
> >> compiler releases on any given platform. Even less for
> >> dev/trunk/master if there is compelling reason to use a feature only
> >> available in the most recent stable release.
> >>
> >>
> >> Cheers for marching forward!
> >> David C.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jun 9, 2015 at 9:58 AM, Utkarsh Ayachit
> >> <utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com> wrote:
> >> > +1. People using those compiler can stick with previous versions of
> VTK.
> >> >
> >> > On Tue, Jun 9, 2015 at 9:37 AM Berk Geveci <berk.geveci at kitware.com>
> >> > wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> Hi folks,
> >> >>
> >> >> Sean graciously created a branch that removes support for Visual
> Studio
> >> >> 8
> >> >> and GCC < 4.1:
> >> >>
> >> >> https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/merge_requests/38
> >> >>
> >> >> GCC 4.1 was released in 2006 and VS 9 was released in 2008 (actually
> >> >> late
> >> >> 2007). I believe that this is very reasonable. We removed support for
> >> >> VS 7
> >> >> and GCC < 3 in 2013 and doing this regularly makes it easier to
> >> >> maintain
> >> >> VTK.
> >> >>
> >> >> Are there any major use cases for keeping these compilers? Unless I
> >> >> hear a
> >> >> good argument against merging this change in the next few weeks, I
> will
> >> >> go
> >> >> ahead and approve it.
> >> >>
> >> >> Moving forward, we will likely be more aggressive removing support
> for
> >> >> older compilers. The VTK developer community really wants to leverage
> >> >> new
> >> >> C++ features (C++ 11) and newer library/compiler features (e.g. TBB,
> >> >> OpenMP
> >> >> 3 and 4) etc. We want to get there relatively fast and this will
> >> >> require
> >> >> dropping old compilers more quickly than before.
> >> >>
> >> >> Thanks,
> >> >> -berk
> >> >>
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> Unpaid intern in BillsBasement at noware dot com
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