Do Boost.Test's data test cases really require C++11?

Question

I work in a specific enterprise environment and there's no C++11 infrastructure at the moment. Recently I started writing unit-tests and decided to utilize Boost.Test framework since Boost is known for its' portability and enterprise-readiness. While general BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE work great, I found out that dataset tests (BOOST_DATA_TEST_CASE) end up including boost/test/data/monomorphic/fwd.hpp that includes <tuple> unconditionally. Does DATA_TEST_CASE indeed require C++11? Is there a way to use BOOST_DATA_TEST_CASE and utilize Boost's built-in tuples and other shipped libs to comply with C++03 standard?

Answer 1

Boost doesn't generally deliberately break c++11 compatibility in existing libraries (though this attitude is changing and you should expect more c++11 requirements in future, see discussions on the boost developer mailing lists).

However new libraries and new features for existing libraries don't adhere to this restriction and generally will require c++11 if that makes the implementation easier/simpler/faster/more reliable etc.

BOOST_DATA_TEST_CASE was only introduced in boost 1.59.0 so is likely to be using c++11.

The general advice is if using an old compiler use an old version of boost. If you want new features upgrade your compiler and use a recent version of boost.