> -----Original Message----- > From: Tom Lane [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 1:22 PM > To: Dave Held > Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org > Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Woo hoo ... a whole new set of compiler > headaches!! :) > > [...] > And not much reward, either. To actually get benefit commensurate > with the risks involved,
Then we are certainly measuring risk differently, because my assessment is that it would not need to offer anything more than very modest benefits to justify the risk. It's not like rewriting the codebase in Java. It's not even close. > we'd need to do some wholesale revisions of internal APIs and > coding practices. No you wouldn't. You could make incremental revisions that offer a very gentle learning curve to C++. My suggestion is to convert the codebase iteratively, taking only small sure steps at each iteration. The internal APIs would evolve, not be overturned and replaced. And the coding practices encouraged by C++ generally lead to safer and more readable code, but would still not prevent people from writing idiomatic C within C++ if they really wanted/needed to (except where features have been converted to C++, of course). > It might not qualify as a complete rewrite, but it'd be dang close. It would only be a complete rewrite if you wanted to take it that far. Otherwise, it would be many small modifications each of which can offer an independent dimension of benefit that can be weighed and judged on its own. > Personally I think the costs would far exceed the benefits. The costs would be fairly minor, as most of the developers would not necessarily be responsible for converting the codebase, only following the new rules as they are introduced over time (and even then, many of the rules could be ignored anyway, like using C++ casts instead of C casts, or using constants instead of macros). Only the people who are comfortable and proficient with C++ would need to invest the time to make sure that upgrades to the codebase proceed in an orderly manner. __ David B. Held Software Engineer/Array Services Group 200 14th Ave. East, Sartell, MN 56377 320.534.3637 320.253.7800 800.752.8129 ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
