The C23 edition of Modern C
https://gustedt.wordpress.com/2024/10/15/the-c23-edition-of-modern-c/Takeaway #1: "C and C++ are different: don’t mix them, and don’t mix them up"
Where "mixing C/C++" is helpful:
- I "mix C in with my C++" projects because "sqlite3.c" and ffmpeg source code is written C. C++ was designed to interoperate with C code. C++ code can seamlessly add #include "sqlite3.h" unchanged.
- For my own code, I take advantage of "C++ being _mostly_ a superset of C" such as using old-style C printf in C++ instead of newer C++ cout.
Where the "C is a totally different language from C++" perspective is helpful:
- knowing that compilers can compile code in "C" or "C++" mode which has ramifications for name mangling which leads to "LINK unresolved symbol" errors.
- knowing that C99 C23 has many exceptions to "C++ is a superset of C" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibility_of_C_and_C%2B%2B...
The modern fmt-inspired std::print and std::println etc. are much nicer, preserving all the type checking but losing terrible ideas like stored format state, and localisation by default. The biggest problem is that today C++ doesn't have a way to implement this for your own types easily, Barry illustrates a comfortable way this could work in C++ 26 via reflection which on that issue closes the gap with Rust's #[derive(Debug)].
This disn't stop with <iostream>, they keep doing it - the latest example I can think of is std::ranges operations being "piped" with |.
I’m not sure about the stdlib version, but with fmtlib you can easily implement formatters for your own types. https://fmt.dev/11.0/api/#formatting-user-defined-types
Hindsight is 20/20, remember that. Streams are not that bad of an idea and have been working fine for decades. You haven't named a problem with it other than the fact the operators are used for other stuff in other contexts. But operator overloading is a feature of C++ so most operators, even the comma operator, can be something other than what you expect.
>The biggest problem is that today C++ doesn't have a way to implement this for your own types easily, Barry illustrates a comfortable way this could work in C++ 26 via reflection which on that issue closes the gap with Rust's #[derive(Debug)].
You can trivially implement input and output for your own types with streams.
You appear to be a Rust guy whose motive is to throw shade on C++ for things that are utterly banal and subjective issues.
The C library headers for libraries I write often include C11/C99 stuff that is invalid in C++.
Even when they are in C89, they are often incorrect to include without the include being in an `extern "C"`.
Almost seamlessly. You have to do
extern “C” {
#include "sqlite3.h"
}
It's telling that every compiler toolchain that compiles C++ also compiles C (for some definition of "C"). With compiler flags, GCC extensions, and libraries that are kinda-sorta compatible with both languages, there's no being strict about it.
_My_ code might be strict about it, but what about tinyusb? Eventually you'll have to work with a library that chokes on `--pedantic`, because much (most?) code is not written to a strict C or C++ standard, but is "C/C++" and various extensions.
https://herbsutter.com/2012/05/03/reader-qa-what-about-vc-an...
> it is hard to say no to you, and I’m sorry to say it. But we have to choose a focus, and our focus is to implement (the standard) and innovate (with extensions like everyone but which we also contribute for potential standardization) in C++.
I mean, yeah if it came from a two member team at a startup, sure focus on C++, understandably. But Microsoft, what happened to "Developers! Developers! Developers!"?
This is how I managed to sneak C++ into an embedded C codebase. We even created some templates for data structures that supported static allocation at compile time.
Yes you can do it less cleanly with macros or inline functions. But you can't do it performantly with struct and function pointers.
But having the "class" keyword is nice. Having built in support for member functions is nice.
Sometimes a person just wants the simplicity of C++ 2003.
(In reality I was working on a project where our compiler only supported C++ 2003 and we had a UI library written in C++ 2003 and honestly pure C UI libraries kind of suck compared to just sprinkling in a bit of C++ sugar.)
> You can do anything in C that you want to.
C++ imo doesn't offer anything compelling for the embedded usecase. Especially not considering all the footguns and politics it brings.
You can of course be strict and diligent about it but if you are you are pretty much just writing C anyway. Better to do it explicitly.
Allowing the use of the C++ standard library has been one of my biggest regrets (not that it was my decision to make, I fought it).
Just like one doesn't use Typescript to keep writing plain old JavaScript, then why bother.
Sooo... yeah... I should definitely change company!
My god. That's amazing.
"_BitInt(N)" is also ugly, reminds me of "_Bool" which is thankfully "bool" now.
[1] guard, defer, auto, constexpr, nullptr (what is wrong with NULL?), etc. On top of that "constexpr" and "nullptr" just reeks of C++.
That said, Modern C is an incredible book, I have been using it for C99 (which I intend to continue sticking to).
If I want to live on cutting edge I would rather use C++2x or Rust rather than C.
Am I missing something? What benefit this supposedly modern C offers?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/562303/the-definitive-c-...
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58815959/include-binary-...
D does not decay arrays, so D has array bounds checking.
Note that array overflow bugs are consistently the #1 problem with shipped C code, by a wide margin.
This isn’t strictly true, a C implementation is allowed to associate memory-range (or more generally, pointer provenance) metadata with a pointer.
The DeathStation 9000 features a conforming C implementation which is known to catch all array bounds violations. ;)
That actually really does exist already with CHERI CPUs, whose pointers are tagged with "capabilities," which catch buffer overruns at runtime.
https://tratt.net/laurie/blog/2023/two_stories_for_what_is_c...
https://msrc.microsoft.com/blog/2022/01/an_armful_of_cheris/
In release fast mode, unsigned overflow/underflow is undefined in Zig whereas in C it wraps.
:-)
Of course C has many UBs that Zig doesn't have, so C is far less safe than Zig, especially since you can use ReleaseSafe in Zig..
So, C23? ... that's nice and all, but, let's talk about it in 20 years or so T_T
1) https://gcc.gnu.org/projects/cxx-status.html#:~:text=C%2B%2B...
Is the usage of single linked lists still prevalent as the main container type?
By the way, the US government did the profession no favors by including C++ as a memory-unsafe language. It is possible to write memory-safe C++, safe array dereferencing C++. But it’s not obvious how to do it. Herb Sutter is working on it with CppFront. The point stands that C++ can be memory-safe code. If you make a mistake, you might write some unsafe code in C++. But you can fix that mistake and learn to avoid it.
When you write C, you are in the bad luck shitter. You have no choice. You will write memory—unsafe code and hope you don’t fuck it up. You will hope that a refactor of your code doesn’t fuck it up.
Ah, C, so simple! You, only you, are responsible for handling memory safely. Don’t fuck it up, cadet. (Don’t leave it all to computers like a C++ developer would.)
Put C in the bin, where it belongs.