6 ms·

I never heard anyone say that C++ is a superset of C. Sure, the first version was a preprocessor on top of C and certainly that is common knowledge. But a supe

I never heard anyone say that C++ is a superset of C. Sure, the first version was a preprocessor on top of C and certainly that is common knowledge. But a superset? Never heard it. ObjC on the other hand...

dahfizz 7y ago
I've definitely heard c++ described this way.
- Animats 7y ago
  It was a superset, once. C++ started as a C preprocessor. But the languages have diverged. It's enough of a superset, though, that C++ hasn't deleted bad features of C, like pointers and arrays being the same thing.
  - loeg 7y ago
    It was maybe a superset for the brief period between C++98 standardization and C99 standardization the following year.
  - _kst_ 7y ago
    Pointers and arrays are not the same thing. See section 6 of the comp.lang.c FAQ, http://www.c-faq.com/ http://www.c-faq.com/ . I doubt that C++ was ever a strict superset of C. Has int class; ever been a valid declaration in C++?
  - eesmith 7y ago
    Once C++ gained "//" for comments - which was the original release in 1983 - it was no longer a superset: uses_BCPL_style_comments = 1 //* */ 2 ; C99's // support did not restore the superset nature. This means your "once" was almost certainly "never".
MauranKilom 7y ago
You evidently haven't been looking at the stackoverflow questions coming in at the [c] and [c++] tags... ;) A frightening amount of [c][c++] tagging is expunged there every day.
- EpicEng 7y ago
  And 90% of those posts are made by beginners with a crashing linked list implementation. They're uninformed.
- Veedrac 7y ago
  Which is often just meaningless pedanticism. There are a lot of questions about C APIs where it's irrelevant whether the answer uses C or C++. The latter might not be an exact superset, but in most cases it's easily close enough.
lochsh 7y ago
I think it's quite a common thing for people to say if they're not actually experienced in writing the languages. I've heard it from multiple people. As I say in the blog post, it's common knowledge for people who are experienced in writing C and/or C++ that this isn't true. But it's a misconception that persists among other programmers.
- Laakeri 7y ago
  Have you seen practical cases where there has been issues because C code is not compatible with C++? The blog has nice toy examples, but would be nice to know if they actually occur in the wild.
  - loeg 7y ago
    Yes, all the time. Off the top of my head, I've run into: - C++ does not support 'foo([static N])' function declarations - C++ does not support 'struct A a = { .b = c, ... }' initializers The conflict arises when these are used in C headers, and then C++ programs attempt to include them.
dec0dedab0de 7y ago
I thought it was until just now. I've never done anything of substance in either, but I've tried both. Now I'm wondering if it was something I heard, or if I just assumed based on my extremely limited experience with both languages.
eesmith 7y ago
FWIW, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22C%2B%2B+is+a+superset+of+C%22&t=ffsb&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22C%2B%2B+is+a+superset+of+C%22&t... finds things like: - C++ is a superset of C, and that virtually any legal C program is a legal C++ program. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus/cpp_overview.htm https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus/cpp_overview.htm - "C is a subset of C++." / "C++ is a superset of C." https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-c-and-c/ https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-c-and-c/ - "C++ is a superset of C; (almost) anything you can do in C, you can do in C++." https://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html https://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html - "As you recall C is a root for C++ and C++ is a superset of C." https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/similarities-and-difference-with-C-Sharp-and-other-languages/ https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/similarities-and-diffe...

dahfizz 7y ago

I've definitely heard c++ described this way.

Animats 7y ago
It was a superset, once. C++ started as a C preprocessor. But the languages have diverged. It's enough of a superset, though, that C++ hasn't deleted bad features of C, like pointers and arrays being the same thing.
- loeg 7y ago
  It was maybe a superset for the brief period between C++98 standardization and C99 standardization the following year.
- _kst_ 7y ago
  Pointers and arrays are not the same thing. See section 6 of the comp.lang.c FAQ, http://www.c-faq.com/ http://www.c-faq.com/ . I doubt that C++ was ever a strict superset of C. Has int class; ever been a valid declaration in C++?
- eesmith 7y ago
  Once C++ gained "//" for comments - which was the original release in 1983 - it was no longer a superset: uses_BCPL_style_comments = 1 //* */ 2 ; C99's // support did not restore the superset nature. This means your "once" was almost certainly "never".

MauranKilom 7y ago

You evidently haven't been looking at the stackoverflow questions coming in at the [c] and [c++] tags... ;) A frightening amount of [c][c++] tagging is expunged there every day.

EpicEng 7y ago
And 90% of those posts are made by beginners with a crashing linked list implementation. They're uninformed.
Veedrac 7y ago
Which is often just meaningless pedanticism. There are a lot of questions about C APIs where it's irrelevant whether the answer uses C or C++. The latter might not be an exact superset, but in most cases it's easily close enough.

lochsh 7y ago

I think it's quite a common thing for people to say if they're not actually experienced in writing the languages. I've heard it from multiple people. As I say in the blog post, it's common knowledge for people who are experienced in writing C and/or C++ that this isn't true. But it's a misconception that persists among other programmers.

Laakeri 7y ago
Have you seen practical cases where there has been issues because C code is not compatible with C++? The blog has nice toy examples, but would be nice to know if they actually occur in the wild.
- loeg 7y ago
  Yes, all the time. Off the top of my head, I've run into: - C++ does not support 'foo([static N])' function declarations - C++ does not support 'struct A a = { .b = c, ... }' initializers The conflict arises when these are used in C headers, and then C++ programs attempt to include them.

dec0dedab0de 7y ago

I thought it was until just now. I've never done anything of substance in either, but I've tried both. Now I'm wondering if it was something I heard, or if I just assumed based on my extremely limited experience with both languages.

eesmith 7y ago

FWIW, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22C%2B%2B+is+a+superset+of+C%22&t=ffsb&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22C%2B%2B+is+a+superset+of+C%22&t... finds things like: - C++ is a superset of C, and that virtually any legal C program is a legal C++ program. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus/cpp_overview.htm https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus/cpp_overview.htm - "C is a subset of C++." / "C++ is a superset of C." https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-c-and-c/ https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-c-and-c/ - "C++ is a superset of C; (almost) anything you can do in C, you can do in C++." https://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html https://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html - "As you recall C is a root for C++ and C++ is a superset of C." https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/similarities-and-difference-with-C-Sharp-and-other-languages/ https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/similarities-and-diffe...