C++11 std::to_string is not supported on Windows GCC

[abelhegedus]

The rALF language includes three toString() methods for Integer, Real and Boolean.

In C++11, std::to_string() was introduced for several types (though not for bool), however, for some obscure reason (_GLIBCXX_HAVE_BROKEN_VSWPRINTF), the gcc available in Cygwin and MinGW does not support this function:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12975341/to-string-is-not-a-member-of-std-says-so-g
• https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52015
• http://chadaustin.me/2013/02/c11-on-windows-hah/

Since we would like to support compilation on Windows, we will create our own implementation in the xumlrt C++ runtime, however, we wanted to raise the issue here as well. Maybe you have some suggestions or know-how worth sharing.

[doczir]

The easiest implementation could be using stringstream. Example:

template <typename T>
::std::string to_string(T value) {
    ::std::stringstream ss;
    ss << value;
    return ss.str();
}

If support for boolean is required, a specialized template method can solve that:

template <>
::std::string to_string<bool>(bool value)
{
    if (value)
        return "true";
    return "false";
}

[abelhegedus]

Yes, that is the workaround that we adopted. This issue is more about Windows - Linux GCC differences and the desired approach in tackling such issues.