On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 09:08:39AM -0800, Sebastian Pop wrote: > Hi, > > I would like to ask the opinion of C/C++ maintainers about the extension > that the Intel compiler proposes for array notations: > http://software.intel.com/sites/products/documentation/studio/composer/en-us/2011/compiler_c/index.htm#optaps/common/optaps_par_cean_prog.htm > > Are there strong opinions against this extension?
It's an interesting concept, looks especially useful for parallel programming. It looks like a very complex set of features; I don't know whether Intel has a document elsewhere that specifies the details. Because of the high complexity, it could be quite a maintainance burden, especially if there isn't a rigorous spec. Interaction with other C++ language features doesn't seem to be described. I can't think of a standard C++ program that would change meaning with this extension. But it's not stated whether there can be a reference to an array section, what the ABI looks like when an array section is passed as a C++ function argument, whether there are any issues when the base type of the array we're taking a section of has constructors and destructors, etc. If someone is interested in producing an experimental gcc extension, great. But there would be a lot of questions to be answered before it would be appropriate to accept as a supported feature of GCC.
