3 ms·
> C/C++ It has been several decades since putting a slash between these two made sense, lumping them together like this. It would be similar to saying somethin
by jb1991 1y ago
> C/C++
It has been several decades since putting a slash between these two made sense, lumping them together like this. It would be similar to saying something like Java/Scala or ObjectiveC/Swift. These are completely different languages.
- pjmlp 1y agoNope, that is a English grammar construct that is a shortcut for "and" and "or", as any good English grammar book will explain. Indeed you see those for Java/Scala and Objective-C/Swift in technical books and job adverts. Any search on the careers sites, or documentation, on companies that have seats at ISO, sell/develop C and C++ compilers, have such C/C++ references in a couple of places. Do you need any example?
- 1718627440 1y agoIn the general case yes, but "C/C++" became an idiom for the stance, that C and C++ are essentially the same, that C++ is a superset of C or that C++ is just the replacing successor of C and it should be treated as superseded. This is quite wrong and thus there is a lot of rightful intervention to that term. Personally I use "C, C++" when I want to talk about both without claiming, that they are the same language.
- pjmlp 1y agoNah, that is what pedantic folks without English grammar knowledge keep complaining about, instead of actually discussing better security practices in both languages. It is a bikeshedding discussion that doesn't help in anything, regarding lack of security in C, or the legions of folks that keep using C data types in C++, including bare bones null terminated strings and plain arrays instead of collection types with bounds checking enabled.
- 1718627440 1y agoIn my opinion, this is an important issue and not "bikeshedding", but it can be discussed whether the term "C/C++" is always an example of that idea or not. I think it is not, but it is connected enough, that I won't use it to side step the issues.
- pjmlp 1y agoSo there will be zero C language constructs, and C standard library functions being called, on your C++ source code?
- 1718627440 1y agoI mostly write C, but yes even a simple call to e.g. malloc has different semantics in C++ (you need to cast).
- pjmlp 1y agoProper C++ should use new, delete, custom allocators, and standard collection types. Even better, all heap allocations should be done via ownership types. Calling into malloc () is writing C in C++, and should only be used for backwards compatibility with existing C code. Additionally there is no requirement on the C++ standard that new and delete call into malloc()/free(), that is usually done as a matter of convenience, as all C++ compilers are also C compilers.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 1718627440 1y ago> Calling into malloc () is writing C in C++, and should only be used for backwards compatibility And this is exactly the stance I am arguing against. C++ is not the newer version of C. It forked of at some point and is a quite different language now. One of the reasons I do use malloc for, is for compatibility with C. It is not for backward compatibility, because the C code is newer. In fact I actively change the code, when it needs a rewrite anyway, from C++ to C. The other reason for using it even when writing C++ is, that new alone doesn't allow to allocate without also calling the constructor. For that I call malloc first and then invoke the constructor with placement new. For deallocating I call the destructor and then free. This also has the additional benefit, that your constructor and deconstructor implementation can fail and you can roll it back.
- jb1991 1y agoThis has nothing to do with bikeshedding, it is a genuine misunderstanding of these two languages that is propagated in this way. This is not about grammar.
- pjmlp 1y agoYet those complaining usually make use of plenty C constructs, data types and standard library on their C++ projects, instead of modern C++ practices.
- 1718627440 1y ago"C-like" code in C++ still has C++ semantics. "modern C++" is a disputed paradigm, but not necessarily how things should be done. When you write C++, but not "modern C++", that doesn't mean you are writing C. There are also modern features in C. https://floooh.github.io/2019/09/27/modern-c-for-cpp-peeps.html https://floooh.github.io/2019/09/27/modern-c-for-cpp-peeps.h...
- pjmlp 1y agoNull terminated strings with pointer arithmetic instead of std::string and string_view, pointer arithmetic instead of std::span, bare pointer arrays instead of std::array and std::vector, C style casts,...
- 1718627440 1y agoSure, that is all modern C++, but we are talking about C vs. C++, not about C++ vs. modern C++ and we certainly don't want to conflate non-modern C++ with C.
- jb1991 1y agoNot in this context, that’s incorrect.
- pjmlp 1y agoWhat context? The pedantic folks that jump of their chair when seeing something all companies that pay WG21 salaries use on their docs? If only they would advocate for writing safer code with the same energy, instead of discussing nonsense. That is why C and C++ communities are looked down by security folks, and governments.
- tmtvl 1y agoThe problem is that it's a bit tricky to type the intersection symbol (∩), because C ∩ C++ makes more sense.