This may seem odd at first, but I believe it has merit. I propose the way a
typical IDE might be used to edit code in C++ should be a conscious
consideration of the language designers.

My experience with C++ IDEs is fairly limited, and as regards Microsoft
Windows based IDEs far from recent.  There /are/ however several Java based
IDEs which add considerablely to the usability of the language. There are
certain core standard features which most IDEs have in common. Some of
these are syntax highlighting, syntax checking, code completion, library
lookup, and etc.

I want to be clear that I am not proposing the language should provide this
functionality as part of the core C++ Standard.  There may, however, be
differences in the ease of supporting different syntactic structures as
regards ease of parsing, highlighting, validating, expanding, etc. Certain
forms may be more natural to work with using the aforementioned IDE
facilities.

As regards library support through headers, it probably makes sense to
consider directly specifying how headers can be used to support such
features as browsing lists of available headers, or browsing headers for
available symbols.

Peripheral to the core C++ Standard it may well be worth considering making
available libraries which facilitate the IDE functionality I've mentioned.
--
STH

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