 C and C++: A Case for Compatibility
started 7/17/2002; 7:42:26 AM - last post 7/20/2002; 2:05:47 PM
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Dan Shappir - C and C++: A Case for Compatibility 
7/17/2002; 7:42:26 AM (reads: 1192, responses: 1)
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| C and C++: A Case for Compatibility |
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I believe it is in the long-term best interest of the C/C++ community to remove all incompatibilities between C and C++. We ought to try for that. Clearly, removing incompatibilities would involve changes to both languages and compromises would have to be crafted to minimize the impact on users of both languages. Silent changes - that is, changes that are not easily diagnosed by a compiler - should be minimized. Wherever possible, the compromises should be crafted to increase the consistency of the resulting set of features and to simplify the language rules. It will be difficult to remove all incompatibilities. However, the amount of work required from the C/C++ community to reach compatibility will be far less than that required from it to live with increasingly incompatible languages.
The second part of Bjarne Stroustrup's three-part discussion of the future of C and C++ (the first part can be found here). Bjarne makes the case for improving compatibility between C and C++, even when it involves changes to both languages.
Posted to critiques by Dan Shappir on 7/17/02; 7:43:31 AM
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Ehud Lamm - Re: C and C++: A Case for Compatibility
7/20/2002; 2:05:47 PM (reads: 653, responses: 0)
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One important point raised by Stroustrup is that C++ is more type safe than C, thus implying that C is not type safe. Amazinlgy few C programmers realize this. Talking with people with C background, I always find myself explaining what type safety is.
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