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Asked: 2026-05-28T04:40:13+00:00

With C++03 it was (and still is) possible to write cross-platform code with both

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With C++03 it was (and still is) possible to write cross-platform code with both MSVC and GCC, sharing C++ code bases between Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Now, what is the situation with C++11? It seems that different C++ compilers implement different features of C++11. To build cross-platform C++11 code, is it safe to take MSVC10 (VS2010) as a kind of “least common denominator”? i.e. if we restrict the approved C++11 features to those implemented by MSVC10, will the resulting C++11 code be compilable with GCC (and so usable on both Linux and Mac OS X) ?

Or is it just better to wait for C++11 compilers to mature and stick with C++03 if we need cross-platform code?

Thanks.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    C++11 is not ready for prime time yet, as you already figured out.

    Not only is the parsing stage still being worked out by the various compilers, but there is also the issue that some, while appearing to accept some features, may have quirks and bugs in the releases you currently have.

    The only sound approach I can think of is to first select the compilers you want to use:

    • you can use gcc/Clang on Windows (with libstdc++) however this will prevent you from interacting with libraries compiled by VC++
    • you can on the other hand validate your code for both gcc/Clang and VC++ (and perhaps a few others if you need to)

    Once you have determined the compilers you want to use, you then have to pick the features of C++11 that you want to use, and that work on all those compilers.

    • gcc is probably the more advanced here
    • Clang does not have lambdas, but has move semantics and variadic templates
    • VC++ is the most behind I think

    And you need to setup a test suite with all those compilers, and on all the platforms you target, and be especially wary of possible code generation issues. I recommend using Valgrind on Linux par example and perhaps Purify (or equivalent) on Windows as they both help spotting those runtime issues.

    Beware that both VC++ and g++ may have extensions accepted by default that are not standard, and may also base their interpretation of the code on previous drafts of C++11.

    Honestly, for production use, I think this is still a bit wonky.

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