[PaulDavisThe1st]

>If the major version were to change, there wouldn't be any need for backward compatibility with the existing code,

I have no idea where you get this idea from. I expect gcc v28 to be able to compile C++ from 2008, and I'm not alone in that.

[maccard]

I completely agree with you.

That said, I wish code written for gcc v28 didn't have to be binary compatible with C++ that was last compiled in 2008...

[PaulDavisThe1st]

It isn't.

[maccard]

And yet GCC and MSVC both refuse to break ABI and have done so for over a decade.

[gpderetta]

MSVC used to break library ABI pretty much on every release. They stopped after overwhelming customer demand.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

Some of us have been writing code for quite a bit longer than that.

The 2000's and C++ were a clusterfuck largely for this very reason.

[maccard]

I’ve been writing c++ since before then too. A lot has changed in the world, notably package managers are actually used with c++ these days.