4 ms·
At some point they need to branch off and not call it C anymore. C should stay relatively small -- small enough that a competent programmer could write a compil
by waynecochran 7y ago
At some point they need to branch off and not call it C anymore. C should stay relatively small -- small enough that a competent programmer could write a compiler and RTS for it.
- weinzierl 7y agoYes, keep C clean and add all the cruft to another language derived from C. We could call the new language C++.
- Gibbon1 7y agoMy opinion is C and C++ need a divorce. So that C can be modernized with features that make sense in the context of the language. And not constrained as a broken subset of C++.
- detaro 7y agoThat has already happened though?
- Gibbon1 7y agoI think it's starting to happen because C++ has become so grossly Byzantine. C refuses to relinquish a bunch of niche applications. The heyday of OOP is past. 10 years ago the attitude was C is going to die any day now. Now it more like since C isn't dying it needs improvements. And none of them are backports from C++ nor make sense in C++.
- detaro 7y agoC99 already isn't a subset of C++ (although I think it took until C++14 to finally give up on that), so any alignment is courtesy now, and it's recognized they'll deviate where necessary.
- wongarsu 7y agoA lot of the world still runs on C99, and a lot of (toy or academic) compilers are written for C0 (a simple, small, safe C subset). Even when a new C version gains more features you can still develop against C99, C0, or whatever version you prefer.
- waynecochran 7y agoThe choice is often an illusion. You only get the control the version for code you write and only if you are programming it in isolation. As soon as you work on a larger team project that may also include third party code you no longer dictate what version of C is being used.