[Rivet] C++11 plan for Rivet

[Andy Buckley]

Hi all,

I'm currently hacking together a prototype physics object smearing 
system for Rivet 2.5 or 2.6, to be beta-tested with the BSM experimental 
groups and re-casters. No capitulation: we will continue to require 
unfolded "proper" measurements, but there is BSM demand for Rivet and 
they will not bite unless we can provide at least some simple machinery 
for efficiency curves.

The way I'm designing it can all be done with Boost features, but once 
again it's stuff that is part of the core language in C++11 and using 
the less-standard Boost implementations feels like going in the wrong 
direction. Also, we are starting to see submitted analyses which use 
C++11 features, and it both feels unnecessarily restrictive on our 
"clients" and is extra work for us to have to revert that code to C++98.

So I would like us to make the switch to mandatory C++11 building of 
Rivet in the next couple of 2.x releases. This would also help us to 
reduce the currently huge number of "paradigm shifts" scheduled (for 
lack of imagination) on v3.0.

There is one major sticking point, in the form of FastJet. While C++11 
compatible, it makes use of auto_ptr and exposes that in its public 
headers, meaning that anyone compiling a Rivet analysis in C++11 mode 
gets a terminal output dominated by FJ auto_ptr deprecation warnings. 
There seems to be no way in GCC to disable these warnings -- or does 
someone know of one? So I think we need to put a bit of pressure on 
FastJet to make a non-complaining release; I already did this ~6 months 
ago and was told that they are working on a major new development, but 
it has not appeared and the issue is more urgent now (I don't know what 
the experiments are doing re. this). So I'll prod them again and 
hopefully we'll be able to make this switch in Rivet 2.5 or 2.6.

Thoughts and suggestions welcome as always...

Andy

-- 
Dr Andy Buckley, Lecturer / Royal Society University Research Fellow
Particle Physics Expt Group, University of Glasgow