[vlc-devel] [vlc-commits] Remove using namespace std; from C++ code

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le lundi 22 juin 2015, 17:42:59 Hugo Beauzée-Luyssen a écrit :
> In order to be able to use atomic_load & co (at least on GCC, I haven't
> checked clang), we need to specify ourselves that atomic_int is an
> explicit specialization of std::atomic<T>,

No, that cannot work. It would reintroduce the exact bug I was trying to fix 
yesterday. We need compatible definitions of atomic types in C and C++, and so 
regardless of the standard version setting of the compiler. That is due to 
vlc_object_alive(), picture_t, etc crossing language and binary boundaries.

Anything that involves defining atomic_int on C++ and not on C (or vice-versa) 
is bound to failure. There are no warranties from the compiler that the 
results will be compatible, and in fact, they typically would not be. Either 
we have custom (identical) definitions all the time, or we always use the 
compiler definitions. The latter ostensibly implies compiler support for C11 
*and* C++11 atomic types.

> rather than relying on
> std::atomic_int, which is a specialization std::atomic_base.
> 
> Doing so with a using namespace std; will cause 2 different types with
> the same name to appear in the global namespace, thus causing the build
> to fail.

Again, you are just moving the problem: now some out-of-tree C++ plugins are 
most likely broken, instead of the VLC build. I do not believe that we can 
require out-of-tree plugins to not use (or to use) the std namespace.

> I don't really have any other proposal to fix the builds, which are not
> involving rolling back to C++99, requiring GCC 5.x, or using atomic
> types for c++, and atomic functions for C.

In my *opinion*, last February was very early to introduce C(++)11 given how 
recent support is in compilers. I do not *personally* care either way: I was 
then fine with C99 plus anonymous unions plus Intel atomic intrinsics. I am now 
fine with C11 with atomics and with VLAs (and without threads).

But of course, some people will want to use GCC 4.9, probably 4.8 and maybe 
older. Those people should have been pissed with the change.

> That issue aside, I honestly think it's a better idea not to use "using
> namespace std;"

VLC headers should not depend on the std namespace, of course. But the VLC 
plugin code and private headers was perfectly fine. If I were developing C++ 
modules, I would not want to have to prepend std:: everywhere.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
http://www.remlab.net/