undefined | Better HN

0 pointsxscott2y ago0 comments

No, what's astonishing is that now that every CPU worth using has 2's complement for signed integers, the compiler writers are still embracing undefined behavior in the name of piddly optimizations.

I was tempted to specify "unsigned" to ward off the obnoxious pedants, and I see that I should have. C really should be a portable assembly language by now. A very small non-breaking change to the standard, and C's arithmetic would be the same as Rust's.

0 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

marcosdumay2y ago· 1 in thread

> No, what's astonishing is that now that every CPU worth using has 2's complement for signed integers, the compiler writers are still embracing undefined behavior in the name of piddly optimizations.

Yeah, that's also astonishing.

Anyway, I've stopped blaming the C developers by now. I just assume they have the goal of killing the language and moving people into a more ergonomic alternative. I don't know their true intentions, but this has been a very predictive assumption.

(I guess any definition of any UB would be non-breaking, so yeah, they could fix all of the language.)

xscottOP2y ago

> I just assume they have the goal of killing the language

Sadly, that's my conclusion too. I really wish there was a good "portable assembly language", and maybe that'll be something that targets WASM.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse