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In Defense of C++

(dayvster.com)
185 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | 16 Sep 25 19:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.309s | source
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jamesdhutton ◴[17 Sep 25 07:26 UTC] No.45272875[source]▶
> You can write simple, readable, and maintainable code in C++ without ever needing to use templates, operator overloading, or any of the other more advanced features of the language.

Maybe you can do that. But you are probably working in a team. And inevitably someone else in your team thinks that operator overloading and template metaprogramming are beautiful things, and you have to work with their code. I speak from experience.

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dayvster ◴[17 Sep 25 07:38 UTC] No.45272967[source]▶
This is true and I will concede this point. Appreciate your feedback!

However if I may raise my counter point I like to have a rule that C++ should be written mostly as if you were writing C as much as possible until you need some of it's additional features and complexities.

Problem is when somebody on the team does not share this view though, that much is true :)

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digitalPhonix ◴[17 Sep 25 08:09 UTC] No.45273171[source]▶
> However if I may raise my counter point I like to have a rule that C++ should be written mostly as if you were writing C as much as possible until you need some of it's additional features and complexities.

How do you define “need” for extra features? C and C++ can fundamentally both do the same thing so if you’re going to write C style C++, why not just write C and avoid all of C++’s foot guns?

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1. bregma ◴[17 Sep 25 10:51 UTC] No.45274164[source]▶
RAII. It's the major C++ feature I miss in C, and the one that fixes most memory leak problems in C. Also, std::vector, which solves the remaining memory leak (and most bounds problems) in C. And std::string, which solves the remaining memory leak problems.