Hacker News Reader

Is there a rule that any new proposals must already be a feature in an existing major implementation?

Yes, the C2x charter has this requirement: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2086.htm

Thanks, so from "Only those features that have a history and are in common use by a commercial implementation should be considered", this precludes stuff that may only exist in clang, gcc, glibc, etc.? If so, why?

I wouldn't read into "commercial" there, I think we meant "production-quality" instead. (We should fix that!)

Basically, we prefer seeing features that real users have used as opposed to an experimental branch of a compiler that doesn't have usage experience. Knowing it can be implemented is one thing, but knowing users want to use it is more compelling.

You could interpret that as "in common use by a commercial[ly used] implementation".

(Not one of the OPs:) Wasn't C11 Annex K, the notoriously failed bounds-checking interfaces, a example of not having an existing implementation?

Annex K had an existing implementation from Microsoft. It wasn't a fully conforming implementation when C11 shipped, however (the specification drifted apart from the initial implementation).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com