<optional> requires -std=c++17 (#479)

There are now more places than just descr.h that make use of these.
The new macro isn't quite the same: the old one only tested for a
couple features, while the new one checks for the __cplusplus version
(but doesn't even try to enable C++14 for MSVC/ICC).

g++ 7 adds <optional>, but including it in C++14 mode isn't allowed
(just as including <experimental/optional> isn't allowed in C++11 mode).
(This wasn't triggered in g++-6 because it doesn't provide <optional>
yet.)