4 ms·

Your question is probably driven by the fact there are a lot of languages which allow you a greater level of abstraction. The answer is "it depends" (of course

Your question is probably driven by the fact there are a lot of languages which allow you a greater level of abstraction. The answer is "it depends" (of course!). If you plan to hack into some kernel source code, device drivers, legacy software, or high performance softwares, probably it's worthy. My advice is: once you learned one language for each type (functional, procedural, object oriented) and a scripting language (python, perl, ruby, ...), then get a project and learn while hacking.

4ad 13y ago
Kernels and device drivers are written in C, not C++.
- FooBarWidget 13y ago
  Depends on the kernel. For example a large part of the Windows kernel is written in C++.
  - tokenrove 13y ago
    At least from what I can gather from Pascal's Showstopper (the book on the development of Windows NT), that was against Dave Cutler's wishes, and indeed the main kernel was originally just C; that books documents some of the hassles they have as a consequence of using C++. (And indeed, it strikes me as bizarre that one would use C++ for an OS kernel.)
  - 4ad 13y ago
    Actually the scope of C++ in the Windows kernel is extremely limited (or it was ~4 years ago, when I worked on that particular kernel).
- simgidacav 13y ago
  > Depends on the kernel. For example a large part of the Windows kernel is written in C++. Exactly. Still yeah, I agree with you (and Linus Torvalds) on the fact C should be used.
- cgh 13y ago
  You can write device drivers for Windows in C++ and for OS X in a subset of C++ (no exceptions or RTTI, from what I recall).
  - 4ad 13y ago
    C++ for windows drivers is not officially supported, and if you do it, it's pretty tricky to get right: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/5/5b5bec17-ea71-4653-9539-204a672f11cf/KMcode.doc http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/5/5b5bec17-ea71-4... Calling the language you write OS X drivers in C++ is also a stretch: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/porting/conceptual/PortingDrivers/other-language/other-language.html https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/portin...

4ad 13y ago

Kernels and device drivers are written in C, not C++.

FooBarWidget 13y ago
Depends on the kernel. For example a large part of the Windows kernel is written in C++.
- tokenrove 13y ago
  At least from what I can gather from Pascal's Showstopper (the book on the development of Windows NT), that was against Dave Cutler's wishes, and indeed the main kernel was originally just C; that books documents some of the hassles they have as a consequence of using C++. (And indeed, it strikes me as bizarre that one would use C++ for an OS kernel.)
- 4ad 13y ago
  Actually the scope of C++ in the Windows kernel is extremely limited (or it was ~4 years ago, when I worked on that particular kernel).
simgidacav 13y ago
> Depends on the kernel. For example a large part of the Windows kernel is written in C++. Exactly. Still yeah, I agree with you (and Linus Torvalds) on the fact C should be used.
cgh 13y ago
You can write device drivers for Windows in C++ and for OS X in a subset of C++ (no exceptions or RTTI, from what I recall).
- 4ad 13y ago
  C++ for windows drivers is not officially supported, and if you do it, it's pretty tricky to get right: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/5/5b5bec17-ea71-4653-9539-204a672f11cf/KMcode.doc http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/5/5b5bec17-ea71-4... Calling the language you write OS X drivers in C++ is also a stretch: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/porting/conceptual/PortingDrivers/other-language/other-language.html https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/portin...