[PROTON-2208] Change base C language/compiler requirements to C99 or equivalent

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: proton-c-0.32.0
• Component/s: proton-c
• Assignee: Andrew Stitcher
• Reporter: Andrew Stitcher
• Created: 05/May/20 13:56
• Updated: 26/Aug/20 17:24
• Resolved: 10/Jul/20 21:39

Description

The current language supposedly supported for clients by proton-c is C89. The current language allowed for implementing proton-c is the common subset of C89 and C++03. This was to support Visual Studio which at the time didn't support enough C99.

This led to significant build complexity so we can build proton-c as C++ on Visual Studio.

Since Visual Studio 2013/2015, Visual Studio has had sufficient C99 support to compile proton.

It would allow us to significantly simplify the build process, library usage and ongoing code maintenance requirements if we only supported VS2015 and later (or if necessary VS2013 - VS2015 would be better as it has C library compatibility changes). Stripping the complex build hacks and header file hacks that support earlier Visual Studio compilers.

Issue Links

• fixes: PROTON-2168 cmake -DBUILD_WITH_CXX=ON build breaks on Linux
• is related to: PROTON-2207 Proton-c clients cannot really be compiled with strict C89 with gnu compatible compilers
• relates to: PROTON-2077 Change Minimum supported Visual Studio compiler to 2015