[Github-comments] [geany/geany] error compiling at scintilla with C++ (#2731)

[elextr]

Yes the compiler requirement is driven by Scintilla, but thats a separate project and can make its own decisions, and Geany is only one of the users of that software.  Whilst a branch compatible with C++11 has been maintained until recently, because the requirement for C++17 the day the standard was released was deemed too fast, that is no longer the case, so to update Scintilla requires moving to the current version that requires C++17 and we hope to do that in 1.38 which will move the requirement.

The only possible workaround would be for somebody to take over that C++11 branch in the Scintilla project and maintain it for as long as they can, but it won't be the Geany project.

But as I said in my edit, even that branch, which we are using in 1.37, needs a _working_ C++11 compiler, GCC 4.8 is not a complete C++11 compiler, that didn't come until something like GCC 5.4 IIRC, so its not unlikely that it will have problems with some C++11.  So for "too old" you can read "not standards compliant yet" if you like.

That branch intended to be compatible with compilers back to GCC 4.8, but maybe something newer leaked in or a change triggered a bug since its difficult for the (no longer) maintainer of the branch to check the backported changes from the C++17 Scintilla for compliance against a not yet standard compiler and the associated not yet standard library.

And a rant of my own if I may, I am tired of people demanding that others invest the effort to support their particular configuration with no contribution of their own.  Even to find the cause and possible workarounds takes effort that somebody has to provide.  As I said above, even distros that use 4.8 as their standard compiler provide newer ones in their distros, and they can be installed at the same time as 4.8. Because you are compiling the whole application yourself with one compiler, and not using any other C++ libraries, issues with ABI incompatibilities with 4.8 won't worry you. End rant.

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