> I can only assume that there must be some interal NIH rule inside Google to use abseil in place of the C++ stdlib FWIW my understanding is that this is exact

> I can only assume that there must be some interal NIH rule inside Google to use abseil in place of the C++ stdlib FWIW my understanding is that this is exactly backwards: Abseil exists because the internal code and toolchain evolved to use features that hadn't landed in the standard yet, and releasing the support this way allows that dependent code to be used in open source releases. It's not about features Googler's "can't" use, it's that they[1] could always use better stuff, and this is a way to get the better stuff released so non-Googlers could use it at all (and then, apparently, complain about it). Obviously looking at this in hindsight from the outside of a project using gcc13/clang15, it seems like it's needlessly different. But when written it was forward-looking. [1] "We", I guess, though I work in ChromeOS and not in this world.