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C++ is the only language I know where you can think you’ve learned it, then stumble upon a completely alien codebase. The decades-long history of the language h
by teeray 4y ago
C++ is the only language I know where you can think you’ve learned it, then stumble upon a completely alien codebase. The decades-long history of the language has spawned all kinds of dialects and template-powered Lovecraftian horrors.
- afrohorse 4y agoThis. The horrors of some 80’s C codebases mixed with C++ over the years at my work (defense contractor) haunt my dreams.
- switchbak 4y agoMy dream is to have an AI that automatically unwraps and de-clever's a codebase to something super simple. Completely unrealistic, but even a semi-manual tool I can use on complex chunks would be amazing.
- kilgnad 4y agoThis can happen. But when it happens, AI at that point has already replaced us.
- bitL 4y agoScala is worse, people tend to invent their own DSLs in it and you end up with two libraries unable to work with each other without wrappers, like in the old days of C++...
- aidenn0 4y agoAs someone who is a fan of Common Lisp, this state of the world kind of grinds my gears. "Lisp isn't suitable for large teams because it's too customizable" while it takes me an order of magnitude more time and effort to come up to speed on a new C++ code-base (day job) compared to doing the same on a new CL code-base (hobby). Some of it is tooling: It's trivial to walk through expansions of Lisp macros, while the tooling for C++ is ... less ergonomic to say the least. Some of it is a weird combination of technical/cultural. You can do a lot more in Lisp without reaching for macros as compared to C++ and templates. In addition, every CL style guide ever says "don't use a macro when a function will do." There's also the culture of "Read *Let over Lambda" (a book on Lisp macrology), now don't ever do any of that unless you absolutely have to"