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What does he propose as a replacement for C++? Did I miss that part? IMO, there's currently nothing mainstream that can replace it. Of course, C is just as fast

by w8rbt 10y ago

What does he propose as a replacement for C++? Did I miss that part? IMO, there's currently nothing mainstream that can replace it. Of course, C is just as fast, but has the same expert problem he cites and lacks many of the safety features found in C++. If you need a very fast, relatively safe, mainstream systems language, there's not much else out there.

cottonseed 10y ago
> Today the "Modern Technologist" has to rely on a new set of languages: Verilog, VHDL. and > all sorts of reconfigurable hardware are being deployed in the field. Intel is currently shipping Xeon CPUs with embedded FPGAs. IOT is going to become a multi-billion dollar market in the next five years, and it is largely propelled by little $10 FPGAs that will require an astounding amount of qualified technologists to program them. I can't say I disagree (I wrote arachne-pnr [0] last year to learn about exactly these technologies) but I don't know how many people are going to be developing next generation of high performance systems in VHDL and Verilog compared to modern programming languages. I think there is a huge opportunity for tool development in this space. [0] https://github.com/cseed/arachne-pnr https://github.com/cseed/arachne-pnr
- kazinator 10y ago
  Nobody is going to write, say, a Firefox plugin in VHDL.
  - pcwalton 10y ago
    To be fair, nobody is going to write Firefox plugins in C++ anymore either (except maybe with Emscripten/wasm).
kazinator 10y ago
> What does he propose as a replacement for C++? Given that the focus of the article is mostly bleeding edge C++, and not C++ in its entirety, I'm justified in suspecting that he would have you do C++ work using C++98 or C++2003. (In which case I strongly agree; I think C++ developed into the best version of its kind of thing in around that era, and is now basically in a kind of Rococo decline.)
- plorkyeran 10y ago
  It's actually more about what was the bleeding edge of C++ 10+ years ago. The examples of "recent developments" he gives are all quite dated, and one is even outright obsolete as of C++11 (the safe bool idiom).
rumcajz 10y ago
I have moved from C++ to C myself and I am a much happier person since.
- Galanwe 10y ago
  I also did switch from C++ to C when C++11 appeared, and never looked back since.

by w8rbt 10y ago

cottonseed 10y ago

> Today the "Modern Technologist" has to rely on a new set of languages: Verilog, VHDL. and > all sorts of reconfigurable hardware are being deployed in the field. Intel is currently shipping Xeon CPUs with embedded FPGAs. IOT is going to become a multi-billion dollar market in the next five years, and it is largely propelled by little $10 FPGAs that will require an astounding amount of qualified technologists to program them. I can't say I disagree (I wrote arachne-pnr [0] last year to learn about exactly these technologies) but I don't know how many people are going to be developing next generation of high performance systems in VHDL and Verilog compared to modern programming languages. I think there is a huge opportunity for tool development in this space. [0] https://github.com/cseed/arachne-pnr https://github.com/cseed/arachne-pnr

kazinator 10y ago
Nobody is going to write, say, a Firefox plugin in VHDL.
- pcwalton 10y ago
  To be fair, nobody is going to write Firefox plugins in C++ anymore either (except maybe with Emscripten/wasm).

kazinator 10y ago

> What does he propose as a replacement for C++? Given that the focus of the article is mostly bleeding edge C++, and not C++ in its entirety, I'm justified in suspecting that he would have you do C++ work using C++98 or C++2003. (In which case I strongly agree; I think C++ developed into the best version of its kind of thing in around that era, and is now basically in a kind of Rococo decline.)

plorkyeran 10y ago
It's actually more about what was the bleeding edge of C++ 10+ years ago. The examples of "recent developments" he gives are all quite dated, and one is even outright obsolete as of C++11 (the safe bool idiom).

rumcajz 10y ago

I have moved from C++ to C myself and I am a much happier person since.

Galanwe 10y ago
I also did switch from C++ to C when C++11 appeared, and never looked back since.