C++17 is formally approved

C++17 is formally approved

6 years ago
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https://herbsutter.com/2017/09/06/c17-is-formally-approved/

As I mentioned in my Kona (March) trip report, WG21 (the ISO C++ committee) completed work on C++17 at our March meeting. At that point it was technically finalized, and since then we have been in the final procedural endgame of formal ISO approval and publication.

Today, I’m pleased to report that the last major ballot was completed: A few hours ago, the C++17 DIS (Draft International Standard) ballot came back with 100% approval, 23 editorial comments, and no technical comments. Unanimous approval of a DIS means that we get to skip the FDIS ballot (as we hoped) and proceed directly to publication. As far as ISO is concerned, we are now done and they are just waiting for us to update the document editorially and send them the final PDF we want to be published.

So the remaining steps are:

  • During the next two months: The project editor (Richard Smith) and helpers will review and resolve the editorial comments, and any other pending editorial tweaks they feel like fixing (e.g., speling, formatting).

  • In early November at our next meeting in Albuquerque: Rubberstamp the result to approve sending the final PDF to ISO for publication.

  • Sometime after that: ISO will publish it. If they don’t take too long, its formal name will be ISO/IEC 14882:2017, but even if they publish in January and call it :2018, that’s just a detail; this standard is known in the industry as C++17.

Note again that all this is just formally putting a bow on C++17. C++17 was technically done in March, we’re not doing any further work on it in WG21 proper, and now it will just be also formally done. WG21’s active project now is C++20, and we already began work on that at our last meeting in Toronto, including to add a major feature (concepts!), and we’ll continue serious work on that in Albuquerque and beyond.

This is a product of many people’s labors and many often-unsung efforts. Thank you again to the hundreds of participants in the ISO C++ committee, and many interested commenters and helpers in the community, for all your work and support for C++ standardization.