Backporting to older platforms
==============================
:Date: 8/2015

GCC-4.9
-------
Currently (as of 8/2015), we require a quite recent compiler and likewise a suitable
C++ standard library for the build. The reason is that we set the language compatibility
level to `-std=gnu++14`. If you're on a platform with an older compiler and standard library,
you need a way to install a recent toolchain in a way, that the standard library includes
like e.g. `#include <functional>` will indeed pick up a suitably modern standard library,
in addition to being compiled with a recent compiler (GCC-4.9 or CLang 3.5). The way to
achieve this is different for every distribution; we'll show the solution for
»Ubuntu Trusty 14.04 LTS« here as an example

GCC and Libstdc++ 4.9 on Ubuntu Trusty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While the standard compiler for Unbutu in 2014 was GCC-4.8, the _Ubuntu Toolchain Project_
provides builds and packages for more recent toolchains through an _PPA_. So we'll add that
PPA as an additional package source, install a GCC-4.9 with the accompanying standard
library, and finally switch the system standard for C/C++ compiler to this new version.
All these steps are reversible and can be deactivated when causing problems elsewhere...

* add the https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-toolchain-r/+archive/ubuntu/test[Ubuntu Toolchain PPA]:
+
----
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
----

 * get the compiler and standard library
+
----
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.9 g++-4.9
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* switch the system standard for ``C compilation'' -- make sure to tie the switch for
  C and C++ compiler, to avoid mixing generated code for incompatible library versions.
+
----
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.9 60 \
                         --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.9
----

Assuming you've also installed the standard gcc`(4.8)` package, you can arrange matters
such as to be able to switch back and forth between both compilers. For this to work,
we need also to make the (default) gcc-4.8 an option in the choice

----
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 60 \
                         --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.8
----

From this point on, we can switch configuration by

----
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
----