[Development] Can we remove recommendation against unnamed namespaces from Qt coding conventions?

[Giuseppe D'Angelo]

On 21/02/2024 17:26, Jøger Hansegård via Development wrote:
> Our Qt coding conventions (https://wiki.qt.io/Coding_Conventions 
> <https://wiki.qt.io/Coding_Conventions>) has a statement on the use of 
> unnamed (anonymous) namespaces. As far as I understand, this statement 
> is now outdated. Can we delete this statement and lean on Cpp Core 
> Guidelines Cpp Core Guidelines SF.22 instead 
> https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines#Rs-unnamed2 
> <https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines#Rs-unnamed2>? Or do we need a Qt specific guideline on this topic?

I think the bullet point you want to remove is this one?

> Avoid the use of anonymous namespaces in favor of the static keyword if possible. A name localized to the compilation unit with static is guaranteed to have internal linkage. For names declared in anonymous namespaces the C++ standard unfortunately mandates external linkage. (7.1.1/6, or see various discussions about this on the gcc mailing lists) 

Indeed, this makes no sense written as-is. Just how old is this rule? 
Names in anonymous namespaces have internal linkage, at least since C++11:

https://timsong-cpp.github.io/cppwp/n3337/basic.link#4

I'd be in favour of suppressing it as well.

My 2 c,
-- 
Giuseppe D'Angelo | giuseppe.dangelo at kdab.com | Senior Software Engineer
KDAB (France) S.A.S., a KDAB Group company
Tel. France +33 (0)4 90 84 08 53, http://www.kdab.com
KDAB - Trusted Software Excellence

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