For years now, I've been holding off on investing in a new C++ compiler
because of the impending release of the ANSI standard.  Should I wait a
little while longer?

Eric Lemings
Univ. of Tenn.

brad@utkvx.utk.edu (Lemings, Eric Bradley) writes:

>For years now, I've been holding off on investing in a new C++ compiler
>because of the impending release of the ANSI standard.  Should I wait a
>little while longer?

If you need a C++ compiler now, get one.  There will always be a better
one in 6 months, so if you don't need one for 6 months, wait 6 months.
(It's like buying a new computer.  In 6 months you can get a better
one for less money than you can now, but at some point you NEED a
computer, and that's when you buy it.)

If everything in the standards process goes smoothly without a hitch
exactly on schedule, and the public review cycles result in no important
complaints or suggestions, the earliest possible date at which the
Standard can become official is ... (drum roll) ... July 1996.
(I personally don't expect it until 1998, but who knows?)
--

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com