Moving to C++11 (again)

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We (Ben, Aki, Rob, Daniel, Mike, Jonah) discussed this at the meeting today.

We concluded that starting in April 2017, we could require a C++ compiler that supports C++14. In particular, the minimum g++ version we could require is 4.9. XCode’s default clang++ version supports more of the C++14 standard than g++ 4.9, so we’re ok with Mac.

The reasoning is:

  • R will release 3.4 in April. Starting with version 3.3, RTools has been using g++ 4.9. In April, R will no longer support 3.2, the last version that used 4.6.3.
  • C++11 vs C++14: there is no compiler that defaults to C++11, but g++ 5 and higher defaults to C++14. g++ 4.9 supports most of C++14.

The limiting factor will be PyStan. We may be limited to what portions of the standard MSVC supports.

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