[C++] Consider adding Abseil (Google C++11 standard library extensions) to toolchain

[asfimport]

Google has released a library of C++11-compliant extensions to the STL that may help make a lot of Arrow code simpler:

https://github.com/abseil/abseil-cpp/

This code is not header-only and so would require some effort to add to the toolchain at the moment since it only supports the Bazel build system

Reporter: Wes McKinney / @wesm

Related issues:

• [Python] Build wheels for manylinux2010 tag (is blocked by)

PRs and other links:

• GitHub Pull Request #2501

_{Note: This issue was originally created as ARROW-1669. Please see the migration documentation for further details.}

[asfimport]

Antoine Pitrou / @pitrou:
About using Abseil with CMake. I don't understand half of it, but it seems complicated :)
abseil/abseil-cpp#80

[asfimport]

Antoine Pitrou / @pitrou:
The baseline glibc version for manylinux1 is too old for Abseil, see ARROW-2461.

[asfimport]

Antoine Pitrou / @pitrou:
I'm not sure we still are interested in this. We seem to be doing fine with individual backports of useful functionality. [~emkornfield@gmail.com]

[asfimport]

Micah Kornfield / @emkornfield:
I think individual backports make sense for the time being.  Ideally, we're getting closer to the point where we can use a more modern C++ standard which makes absl less valuable.  My other concern which looking at the code isn't a concern yet, is if absl ever open sources Google's Status object, it would make our code more complicated.

[asfimport]

Micah Kornfield / @emkornfield:
Closing for now, we can revisit individual functionality as necessary.