[account42]

We did have one major C++ compiler on Windows (MSVC) and one major C++ compiler elsewhere (GCC) and they both stagnated in many areas before Clang came along and forced them to advance to stay competitive.

[pjmlp]

GCC wasn't elsewhere.

Up to 2005 I was using UNIX own C++ compilers, meaning aCC, xlC, SunPRO.

Then there were Microchip, ARM, TI,...