4 ms·

honest question, is the Windows kernel written in C++? If not, what does that team use to build it if "C is deprecated"?

• pointyhats 13y ago
  The Windows kernel is C++. From what I've seen (shared source), it's mainly C-style C++ though. I didn't see a single template or a class in my travels.
  • munin 13y ago
    If you read the WRK, ntoskrnl is all C...
    • pjmlp 13y ago
      Or a C++ subset in the near future, if the BUILD 2012 remark is true.
      • malkia 13y ago
        and most of all extern "C", possibly no exceptions, no RTTI, no global new/delete, etc. - e.g. "embedded"-C++ like (only guessing).
        • pjmlp 13y ago
          Most likely yes.
• pjmlp 13y ago
  At Build 2012 it was mentioned that the C code that still exists was being made C++ compatible. Similar to what GCC did before changing to C++ as implementation language.
• munin 13y ago
  it's in C. as it was explained to me once, the compiler team asked the kernel team if they would be fine fixing C support at C89 and the kernel team said "sure". being the largest and most important consumer of the compiler (at the time, possibly still today) that was that. the kernel team is also pretty slow to adapt new C compilers and you can see this by watching the lag in compiler versions released in the driver development kit vs those released with visual studio.