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0 pointsqsdf381003y ago0 comments

You don’t have to rewrite anything. C++ keeps backward compatibility. You don’t have to make it sound like it’s the case, and you don’t have to shame the "modern c++ crowd" over that false claim. That’s just uncalled for, unconstructive and partisan discourse. I expect better from HN.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

jnwatson3y ago· 2 in thread

Did you see the original post? Lots of code changes were required for Chrome. That’s not backwards compatible.

qsdf38100OP3y ago

It’s 99.9% backward compatible. The comment makes it sound like it’s a huge pain every 2 years, as if it was the "python 2 to 3" level of pain.

I went through a lot of these new versions, starting with c++11, and can’t remember one time I had to change anything to my code based, appart from silencing deprecation warnings for unicode stuff.

Now I get that chromium-like code bases are huge and that the 0.1% of backward incompatibility is still a pain. Now, with that level of hugeness of code bases, maintaining it when the language evolves is going to be a pain. C++ has been very careful with backward compat, breaking very few things, compared to other languages. So these criticisms really are uncalled for to me. Sounds like good ol c++ bashing trying to sound wise.

I felt the comment wasn’t fair and wasn’t an honest criticism. Sorry for my angry comment. We live in rough times.

jnwatson3y ago

I've done several Python 2->3 transitions, and the amount of effort looks to be in the same order of magnitude described in the post.

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