[webkit-dev] on coding-style

[Karen Shaeffer]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 03:41:17PM -0700, Benjamin Poulain wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 3:33 PM, Karen Shaeffer <shaeffer at neuralscape.com>wrote:
> >
> > Was reading the coding-style documentation. Have just one question
> > concerning
> > C++ null pointer value. Quoting the coding-style docs, "In C++, the null
> > pointer
> > value should be written as 0."
> >
> > My question is: Doesn't xcode clang now support features like nullptr?
> > Shouldn't
> > the coding-style documentation be updated to use nullptr?
> >
> 
> The problem is the variety of compilers used by the various ports (WebKit
> is also used on Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc.), not all of them supports
> nullptr.
> 
> You can already use nullptr with some types (RefPtr, OwnPtr, etc). That is
> thanks to a hack in Source/WTF/wtf/NullPtr.h
> 
> Cheers,
> Benjamin

Hi Benjamin,
Of course, I understand that. But there is a huge opportunity cost to webkit.
The c++11 standard also rewrites the entire standard library. I have been using
g++ 4.7.2 using -stdc++11 in my work with linux. And the code I have tested is
performing nearly like c code. If you take advantage of the performance enhancements
in C++11, then you can realize impressive performance gains.

I do understand the nature of the business. And I also understand that performance
is huge moving forward, where resource constrained mobile platforms are significantly
affected by performance issues. I suggest you'll see Blink moving aggressively to
support C++11 moving forward. And I suggest it is in WebKit's long term interest to
do so as well.

enjoy,
Karen
-- 
Karen Shaeffer
Neuralscape, Mountain View, CA 94040