C++ is "C like" and uses manual memory management. The major idiom is RAII, which is based on deterministic destructor execution. Java is "C like" and uses gar

C++ is "C like" and uses manual memory management. The major idiom is RAII, which is based on deterministic destructor execution. Java is "C like" and uses garbage collection for dynamic memory management. It doesn't have determistic destructors. The major idiom is inheritance and overriding virtual methods. GLSL is "C like" and doesn’t even support dynamic memory allocation, manual or otherwise. The major idiom is an implicit fixed function pipeline that executes around your code - you don't write the whole program. So what does "C like" actually mean? IMHO it refers to superficial syntax elements like curly braces, return type before the function name, prefix and postfix increment operators, etc. It tells you almost nothing about the semantics, which is the part that determines how code in that language will map to CPU machine code vs. a GPU IR like SPIR-V. For example, CUDA is based on C++ but it has to introduce a new memory model to match the realities of GPU silicon.