Re: C or C++ something else....

Paul Connolly wrote:
"kwikius" <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1159817505.469788.177860@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

No. I don't code in C, the local C guru. Poor guy came out of rehab,
and then they asked him to look at some code he wrote before he went
in. He disappeared around that time :-(

You don't code in C - you cannot see the point of coding in C compared to
C++ - C is my language of choice - it is simple - it is clear - the cost of
every language construct is relatively clear.

Not so... You might get closer in the case of assembler, but in case of
RISC processor for example then you might need to delve into the makeup
of the OpCodes..IOW microcodes. And you forget the cost of only being
able to use low level constructs... Of course if you don't have higher
level constructs (e.g templates.. template metaprogramming) then you
can't factor those in to the design equation. ( A bit like the flat
earth society...they can see the world is flat.. but they can't see
very far) At boost for example, in e.g MPL, C++ makes use of the
preprocessor and combines that with templates. Some of the idioms
learned are now making their way into the next generation of C++. IOW
the low level techniques become higher level constructs.

I know you don't, but can you code in C? - or are you just a critic as
Brendan Behan said, "Critics are like eunuchs in the harem; they know how
it's done, they've seen it sone every day, but they're unable to do it
themselves."

I have no real criticism of C. It works OK as far as it goes.

C++ is often trumpeted as a great advance on C because of its OO features.

C++ is not particularly an OO language. It also uses ideas from
functional languages.

eg:

http://www.boost.org/doc/html/lambda.html

In fact C++ has incorporated useful stuff from many languages,
including e.g looking at the way threads are dealt with in Java. The
benefit of C is staying close to the machine. In fact maybe that is the
reason that C++ should keep in touch with C, but OTOH maybe there are C
concepts that are hard for the compiler to optimise, and maybe with
concurrent processing C++ could benefit from a more up to date machine
model.

<..>

Advice to the original poster:

If you want to hold your head up high as a real programmer then learn C

Thanks for the 'advice' :-)

Being a 'real programmer' is not very important to me. (And being a
real programmer in fact means using many languages) I just need to get
stuff done fast and efficiently and with a high performance. C may
provide the last eventually, but not the first and second.

regards
Andy Little

.

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