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0 points0110001110d ago0 comments

A lot of us are too busy solving problems. Learning about the latest language features, which we often won't be able to use anyway due to the trouble of moving a large dev environment to a newer standard, feels like academic masturbation.

C++ folks are very much into their language, and can't seem to understand that most folks don't want to dedicate significant amounts of mental resources purely to language details.

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7 comments · 2 top-level

pjmlp10d ago· 4 in thread

Like implementing the compilers used by C devs.

uecker9d ago

GCC was implemented in C and there are plenty of other C compilers written in C. GCC has been converted to C++ at some point, but large parts are still essentially C and I do not think the change to C++ was actually helpful (but others may disagree). In any case, the idea that one needs C++ to have C compilers is certainly simply wrong.

WalterBright9d ago

My original C compiler was implemented in C and then bootstrapped. Zortech C++ was implemented in Zortech C, and then bootstrapped.

D was implemented in "C with Classes" and then translated to D and bootstrapped. There isn't a line of C code in it.

Over time, we gradually replace the C-isms and C++isms and anachronisms in it to native D-isms.

delta_p_delta_x9d ago

Clang/LLVM with its more permissive licence sees _much_ wider use and is written purely in C++. PlayStation, automotive, platforms and runtimes like Chromium/V8, Android, etc. are all built with Clang.

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pjmlp9d ago

Naturally GCC was originally written in C, given its age, and the original GNU coding standards document.

With time, the GCC developers acknowledged the benefits of using C++ over C, and migrated the code.

GCC requires a C++ compiler to bootstrap since around 2012, and GNU coding standards has been updated to several languages beyond C, time to go up with times.

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bluGill10d ago· 1 in thread

Moving to new C++ is a non event, change the compiler / flags and done. Using the new features requires some learning but not a big deal since you can figure out what you need from a summary and learn what is useful for your problem.

The problems of the code I'm writing far exceeds the complexity of the language. Your complaint about complexity fall flat to me, unless you are working on a trivial program you need to deal with things far more complex than any language.

01100011OP9d ago

It's really not. For us, changing compiler versions has noticeable effects throughout our codebase. I'm glad you don't have to deal with that though.

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