4 ms·

> An infinite loop should compile to an infinite loop. I think that a compiler option should control this. It can be a nice optimization, but the programmer sh

by ibobev 13d ago

> An infinite loop should compile to an infinite loop. I think that a compiler option should control this. It can be a nice optimization, but the programmer should be able to opt out.

Xirdus 13d ago
The programmer can opt out by terminating the loop.
WalterBright 13d ago
Every flag that changes the semantics of the code bifurcates the language into two languages.
- ibobev 13d ago
  If we accept this definition, C++ already seems to be many different languages. At my job, I'm currently fighting floating-point determinism issues across different build configurations, compilers, CPUs, operating systems, and standard library and libm implementations so that snapshot tests pass with the same hashes on all platforms. I can confirm that this is a complete nightmare.
  - WalterBright 13d ago
    Yup. I tried hard to not allow D's behaviors to be changed based on a compiler switch. Yes, we have switches to enable certain features, but not silent behavior changes. It's not perfect, but the forest of such switches in C compilers motivated D to not have them.
- cryptonector 13d ago
  Alternatively every flag that changes the semantics of the code is a workaround for either legacy code no one will fix or language committee decisions that have unintended side effects.
  - WalterBright 13d ago
    Are C/C++ chars signed or unsigned? What a mess!
    - nrr 11d ago
      The state of affairs in C and C++ is abhorrently bad. Not only is there `char` but also `signed char` and `unsigned char`, and the standards seem to leave the signedness interpretation of bare `char` up to the implementation. Ada explicitly settled on `Character` being an enumeration type based on a specific character set encoding. When I learned Ada 95, the ARM specified the ISO 8859-1 character set for `Character`, likewise with `Wide_Character` and `Wide_Wide_Character` explicitly settling on 16- and 32-bit implementations of UCS. I wish more language specifications made decisions like this. D following suit with tying its `char`, `wchar`, and `dchar` to UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 is commendable.

by ibobev 13d ago

> An infinite loop should compile to an infinite loop. I think that a compiler option should control this. It can be a nice optimization, but the programmer should be able to opt out.

Xirdus 13d ago

The programmer can opt out by terminating the loop.

WalterBright 13d ago

Every flag that changes the semantics of the code bifurcates the language into two languages.

ibobev 13d ago
If we accept this definition, C++ already seems to be many different languages. At my job, I'm currently fighting floating-point determinism issues across different build configurations, compilers, CPUs, operating systems, and standard library and libm implementations so that snapshot tests pass with the same hashes on all platforms. I can confirm that this is a complete nightmare.
- WalterBright 13d ago
  Yup. I tried hard to not allow D's behaviors to be changed based on a compiler switch. Yes, we have switches to enable certain features, but not silent behavior changes. It's not perfect, but the forest of such switches in C compilers motivated D to not have them.
cryptonector 13d ago
Alternatively every flag that changes the semantics of the code is a workaround for either legacy code no one will fix or language committee decisions that have unintended side effects.
- WalterBright 13d ago
  Are C/C++ chars signed or unsigned? What a mess!
  - nrr 11d ago
    The state of affairs in C and C++ is abhorrently bad. Not only is there `char` but also `signed char` and `unsigned char`, and the standards seem to leave the signedness interpretation of bare `char` up to the implementation. Ada explicitly settled on `Character` being an enumeration type based on a specific character set encoding. When I learned Ada 95, the ARM specified the ISO 8859-1 character set for `Character`, likewise with `Wide_Character` and `Wide_Wide_Character` explicitly settling on 16- and 32-bit implementations of UCS. I wish more language specifications made decisions like this. D following suit with tying its `char`, `wchar`, and `dchar` to UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 is commendable.