[GRASS-dev] Min. req. of programming language standard support, GRASS GIS 8

[Nicklas Larsson]

Dear Devs!

As a relatively new member of the GRASS GIS dev community, I have had to search for information on mailing lists, old trac comments etc. regarding coding practice and in particular minimum programming language standard support. Ending up in not entirely conclusive understanding. Up until now, I have been mostly involved in Python development and I’m still not absolutely certain, although I assume 3.5 is minimum version. And I’m not alone, see e.g. [1].

Now, I’ve encountered a similar dilemma with C standard support, attempting to address compiler warnings [2], in particular with the PR #1256 [3].

I would be great if there were a (one) place where the min support of Python version, C (C89, C99, C11, C17…) and C++ (C++03, C++11, C++14 …) standard is stated -- loud and clear. Obviously, there has to be a consensus in the community on these matters for that to happen. Such a statement will also have to be revised now and then. (A related question is also whether or not to support 32 bit, which I know have been raised recently).

I’d appreciate your opinion is on this issue!
Let me put up a a suggestion for min. req. for coming GRASS GIS 8 as a starting point of discussion:
- Python 3.7
- C11
- C++11


Best regards,
Nicklas



[1] https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/issues/1241
[2] https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/issues/1247
[3] https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/1256