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I started off with C 15 years ago, but now I find myself migrated, by and large, to C++. Everything that's good about C exists in C++, and all of the missing co

I started off with C 15 years ago, but now I find myself migrated, by and large, to C++. Everything that's good about C exists in C++, and all of the missing components (string support, smart pointers, tuples, maps, STL data structures) make life much easier. On top of that, it's the exact same compiler for both C and C++ on most platforms.

Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
Thankfully everything that's bad about C++ is absent in C. My least favorite term in CS is "C/C++" because they are two totally different languages, suitable for for totally different problems, and C++ is a smear on C's otherwise good name.
- jey 8y ago
  "C++ In the spirit of C" seems to be the sweet spot for me; think of a C++ programmer retreating to C but still keeping their fancy new C++ compiler.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
    You're probably better off using Go then. If you like C++ but wish it were better you want Rust, and if you like C but wish it were better you want Go.
    - jey 8y ago
      In Go I can't `extern C` and calling C functions is expensive. I will probably be using Rust for some projects in the future, but right now I'm reliant on C++ for stuff like Eigen (numerical linear algebra) and OpenMP (shared memory loop parallelism).
      - bestouff 8y ago
        Then you'll probably like Rust + nalgebra + rayon.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Strange, I though that C++ has to thank C for implicit conversions, unsafe enums, memory corruption due to out-of-bounds in string and memory handling functions, UB, slow compilation times due to text inclusion, lack of code understanding due to macros über all, weak linking, ...
flohofwoe 8y ago
For me it's exactly the other way around. Spent 20 years in C++ (before that 5 years of C), but slowly and steady got fed up by the language complexity, redundant features, standard library bloat and compiles times. Went back to C and it's like a breath of fresh air. The turning point for me was realizing that C++ mostly helps with managing the complexity of many small memory allocations, but it's better to avoid such a "many small memory allocations" scenario to begin with. And without that, C++ looses much of its appeal over C.
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  If you're not using the type safety and error handling afforded by C++ you're probably not using C++11. (reminder: latest version is C++17 which brings much higher usability at compiler implementation complexity cost) Where C++ in modern form helps is generally getting rid of unsafe accesses and uses. I'll take exceptions over checking error codes all the time.
- Ace17 8y ago
  Don't you miss virtual functions? I found that no matter how you did it, implementing polymorphism in C (with function pointers) is tedious and verbose ; also, it discourages the creation of new interfaces (too much boilerplate).
  - flohofwoe 8y ago
    No, I don't use virtual methods (or inheritance, or runtime polymorphism) in C++ that much either.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Started in C 35 years ago, migrated to C++ for about 10 or 15, and now try and avoid C++ but am perfectly amenable to a little C if the situation suits. The extreme ugliness and overhead of C++ was wearing, as was the occasional zealotry of those who knew C++ but never went through a just C phase. These days I've seen enough different languages to mostly not care that much.

Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago

Thankfully everything that's bad about C++ is absent in C. My least favorite term in CS is "C/C++" because they are two totally different languages, suitable for for totally different problems, and C++ is a smear on C's otherwise good name.

jey 8y ago
"C++ In the spirit of C" seems to be the sweet spot for me; think of a C++ programmer retreating to C but still keeping their fancy new C++ compiler.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
  You're probably better off using Go then. If you like C++ but wish it were better you want Rust, and if you like C but wish it were better you want Go.
  - jey 8y ago
    In Go I can't `extern C` and calling C functions is expensive. I will probably be using Rust for some projects in the future, but right now I'm reliant on C++ for stuff like Eigen (numerical linear algebra) and OpenMP (shared memory loop parallelism).
    - bestouff 8y ago
      Then you'll probably like Rust + nalgebra + rayon.
pjmlp 8y ago
Strange, I though that C++ has to thank C for implicit conversions, unsafe enums, memory corruption due to out-of-bounds in string and memory handling functions, UB, slow compilation times due to text inclusion, lack of code understanding due to macros über all, weak linking, ...

flohofwoe 8y ago

For me it's exactly the other way around. Spent 20 years in C++ (before that 5 years of C), but slowly and steady got fed up by the language complexity, redundant features, standard library bloat and compiles times. Went back to C and it's like a breath of fresh air. The turning point for me was realizing that C++ mostly helps with managing the complexity of many small memory allocations, but it's better to avoid such a "many small memory allocations" scenario to begin with. And without that, C++ looses much of its appeal over C.

AstralStorm 8y ago
If you're not using the type safety and error handling afforded by C++ you're probably not using C++11. (reminder: latest version is C++17 which brings much higher usability at compiler implementation complexity cost) Where C++ in modern form helps is generally getting rid of unsafe accesses and uses. I'll take exceptions over checking error codes all the time.
Ace17 8y ago
Don't you miss virtual functions? I found that no matter how you did it, implementing polymorphism in C (with function pointers) is tedious and verbose ; also, it discourages the creation of new interfaces (too much boilerplate).
- flohofwoe 8y ago
  No, I don't use virtual methods (or inheritance, or runtime polymorphism) in C++ that much either.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

Started in C 35 years ago, migrated to C++ for about 10 or 15, and now try and avoid C++ but am perfectly amenable to a little C if the situation suits. The extreme ugliness and overhead of C++ was wearing, as was the occasional zealotry of those who knew C++ but never went through a just C phase. These days I've seen enough different languages to mostly not care that much.