Forte 6.2 and Sun C++ 4.2 question

Question

Is there a way to link a library built using Forte 6.2 to an application using Sun C++ 4.2. I know that all of you recommend I should recompile my codes to 6.2, but I have no way out.
My company's old application is built using 4.2 and we need this new library which uses STL. Although we have the codes for this library, we can't build it for 4.2 because 4.2 does have the STL library.
So I am thinking about building this library in 6.2 and then wrap it using extern "C" in my application then finally build and link it using 4.2.
Will this work? Any advice is appreciated :)

Answer 1

Is there a way to link a library built using Forte
6.2 to an application using Sun C++ 4.2. No, you can't do that.
You can go the other way, however. You can compile new code with C++ 5.3 (Forte 6 udpate 2) using the -compat=4 option, and link in the existing code that was compiled with 4.2.
>
My company's old application is built using 4.2 and
we need this new library which uses STL. To use the C++ standard library, you must compile in default standard mode (-compat=5). The code generated in standard mode is not compatible with code generated by C++ 4.2.
The C++ Migration Guide that comes C++ 5.3 explains the issues.
So I am thinking about building this library in 6.2
and then wrap it using extern "C" in my application
then finally build and link it using 4.2.
Will this work? Any advice is appreciated :)The C++ MIgration Guide explains how you can isolate standard-mode code and compatibility-mode code into separate libraries and link them together. The requirements on the code are severe, however, and the version of the Migration Guide that comes with C++ 5.3 did not adequately describe all the limitations. You can download the current version of the Migration Guide from
http://developers.sun.com/tools/cc/documentation/ss10_docs/index.html
The Migration Guide for Sun Studio 10 (C++ 5.7) mentions using libExbridge to allow exceptions to work, but that library is not available for C++ 5.3. If your program uses exceptions, it's possible that the program won't work.
The best solution would be to get the old source code and recompile it with the newer compiler.
The second-best solution would be to drop the old code, and write a replacement library.
Trying to mix the old and new code will take nearly as long, and will trap you in a descending spiral that will eventually require you to replace the old code anyway.