I like C more than I thought I would
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I've always been a C++ nerd. I came at C++ self taught, but I came at it fresh, without "graduating" from writing C code. I've never regarded C++ as OOP, but rather GP oriented, although in truth it's a chameleon, and can do pretty much anything. However, I make heavy use of template based programming. So I didn't think I'd enjoy C. I figured I'd miss templates. I still do. There is some real ugly in terms of things you have to do with C that are elegant in C++. That being said, I don't miss them as much as I thought I would. Also, using the preprocessor freely is kind of liberating. In C++ I use it only as a last resort. In C it's more first class for me. Anyway, I like C. I do wish it had templates! And it's kind of verbose, which is hard on the fingers (everything has a handle) but also it wasn't a huge transition for me, since I do a lot of IoT coding I don't use things like exceptions, nor do I make heavy use of the STL, so C wasn't so bad. :)
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Back in the day, working for a NASA contractor, we were working on graphic representation of data from the engineering (FORTRAN) programs, which had to be done in C on massive UNIX machines. OOP was still a new concept, but we used the flexibility of C to create object-like arrays of data (okay, just the parameter part of objects, but with a suite of functions to support each). OOP was the natural progression, but I never did learn C++. Perhaps I should. The freedom of C is both scary and appealing to the megalomaniac in me; I always delighted in writing in it.
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I've always been a C++ nerd. I came at C++ self taught, but I came at it fresh, without "graduating" from writing C code. I've never regarded C++ as OOP, but rather GP oriented, although in truth it's a chameleon, and can do pretty much anything. However, I make heavy use of template based programming. So I didn't think I'd enjoy C. I figured I'd miss templates. I still do. There is some real ugly in terms of things you have to do with C that are elegant in C++. That being said, I don't miss them as much as I thought I would. Also, using the preprocessor freely is kind of liberating. In C++ I use it only as a last resort. In C it's more first class for me. Anyway, I like C. I do wish it had templates! And it's kind of verbose, which is hard on the fingers (everything has a handle) but also it wasn't a huge transition for me, since I do a lot of IoT coding I don't use things like exceptions, nor do I make heavy use of the STL, so C wasn't so bad. :)
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
My main language is C, although I've coded in C++ far longer. I don't use classes unless I have a very good reason to and on only one very specific occasion I used templates (I hate generics). That said I have to confess I come from the opposite end of programming. C is a very nice abstraction of assembler, with the added caveat of being portable and I have emulated objects in C using function pointers within structs. Despite the supposed (never seen it) security implications of void pointers, those are about as close as I can imagine to using generic data types in your functions (I do videogames so performance and efficiency always trumps readability...and security will always be an afterthought) Anyways welcome :)
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I've always been a C++ nerd. I came at C++ self taught, but I came at it fresh, without "graduating" from writing C code. I've never regarded C++ as OOP, but rather GP oriented, although in truth it's a chameleon, and can do pretty much anything. However, I make heavy use of template based programming. So I didn't think I'd enjoy C. I figured I'd miss templates. I still do. There is some real ugly in terms of things you have to do with C that are elegant in C++. That being said, I don't miss them as much as I thought I would. Also, using the preprocessor freely is kind of liberating. In C++ I use it only as a last resort. In C it's more first class for me. Anyway, I like C. I do wish it had templates! And it's kind of verbose, which is hard on the fingers (everything has a handle) but also it wasn't a huge transition for me, since I do a lot of IoT coding I don't use things like exceptions, nor do I make heavy use of the STL, so C wasn't so bad. :)
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I spent my career as an embedded developer (retired now) and I've only had one project that had enough RAM to be able to use something like STL. The project was basically done when I got it so all I did to it was add/fix miscellaneous features. For most of my projects in the last 15 years of my career, I was using C++ but stayed away from dynamic object creation (all objects instantiated at startup) and inheritance. Since compiler tech had gotten so good, I did use templates for common things like FIFO's, queue's and components for some DSP (filters, tone generators, etc). Don't be afraid to use C++ features, just make sure you know the memory and time cost.
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I spent my career as an embedded developer (retired now) and I've only had one project that had enough RAM to be able to use something like STL. The project was basically done when I got it so all I did to it was add/fix miscellaneous features. For most of my projects in the last 15 years of my career, I was using C++ but stayed away from dynamic object creation (all objects instantiated at startup) and inheritance. Since compiler tech had gotten so good, I did use templates for common things like FIFO's, queue's and components for some DSP (filters, tone generators, etc). Don't be afraid to use C++ features, just make sure you know the memory and time cost.
Sounds like we're very similar in how we approach C++ on embedded and IoT. In projects like htcw_gfx[^] I rarely allocate memory for you, although temporary allocations are sometimes necessary for performance, they are few and far between, plus allow you to specify custom allocators. I don't use STL in such projects. In fact, I've gone out of my way to avoid it, even implementing my own streams and basic data structures like a hashtable and a vector that you can't remove items from aside from clearing the whole thing. The reason is flash size and memory usage - primarily heap frag. I keep my constructors inlineable by my compiler and generally use template based "interfaces" at the source level rather than inheritance based interfaces at the binary level. The idea being flash size is at less of a premium than CPU cycles.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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The second is that everything has to be casted on both sides of the '='. That got old quick.
You must have first seen C back in the 80s? Since C99, anytime a cast is done in C it's a code-smell; casting should almost never be required.
Yeah, my first exposure was in college, around '88. Every time I've came across C-like code even within the past 10 years it has been full of casts. But I haven't programmed C, so am not too familiar with the current idiosyncrasies.
Our Forgotten Astronomy | Object Oriented Programming with C++ | Wordle solver
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I've always been a C++ nerd. I came at C++ self taught, but I came at it fresh, without "graduating" from writing C code. I've never regarded C++ as OOP, but rather GP oriented, although in truth it's a chameleon, and can do pretty much anything. However, I make heavy use of template based programming. So I didn't think I'd enjoy C. I figured I'd miss templates. I still do. There is some real ugly in terms of things you have to do with C that are elegant in C++. That being said, I don't miss them as much as I thought I would. Also, using the preprocessor freely is kind of liberating. In C++ I use it only as a last resort. In C it's more first class for me. Anyway, I like C. I do wish it had templates! And it's kind of verbose, which is hard on the fingers (everything has a handle) but also it wasn't a huge transition for me, since I do a lot of IoT coding I don't use things like exceptions, nor do I make heavy use of the STL, so C wasn't so bad. :)
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
As a late-comer to this thread, all I can say is that somewhere inside C++ is a beautiful language waiting to get out. C/C++ both suffer from readability issues. When I look at a piece of code, I want to be able to "grok" it in a few seconds. My most serious complaint about both is that the very things, flexibility and conciseness, that make them usable work against them. I trip through a lot of third party code and it takes waaaaay too much time to understand what the original author wanted to do and how he went about it. Then try to find the error or where it needs to be tweaked to add/modify the code.....days turn into weeks, then months. Simply put, I want to look at the code and comprehend its intent and organization in minutes. Bottom line: C/C++ allow a programmer too many variations to accomplish a task. Good and bad.
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As a late-comer to this thread, all I can say is that somewhere inside C++ is a beautiful language waiting to get out. C/C++ both suffer from readability issues. When I look at a piece of code, I want to be able to "grok" it in a few seconds. My most serious complaint about both is that the very things, flexibility and conciseness, that make them usable work against them. I trip through a lot of third party code and it takes waaaaay too much time to understand what the original author wanted to do and how he went about it. Then try to find the error or where it needs to be tweaked to add/modify the code.....days turn into weeks, then months. Simply put, I want to look at the code and comprehend its intent and organization in minutes. Bottom line: C/C++ allow a programmer too many variations to accomplish a task. Good and bad.
I think you have to be more careful to write readable C++ code but it's totally doable. It's just that a lot of people (sadly, including myself :~ ) don't bother. On the other hand, reading C++ is a bit like listening to Aesop Rock. Absolutely unintelligible at first, each for similar reasons, actually, but you start to get an organic feel for the various ways it tends to get put together and then it clicks.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I think you have to be more careful to write readable C++ code but it's totally doable. It's just that a lot of people (sadly, including myself :~ ) don't bother. On the other hand, reading C++ is a bit like listening to Aesop Rock. Absolutely unintelligible at first, each for similar reasons, actually, but you start to get an organic feel for the various ways it tends to get put together and then it clicks.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I've always been a C++ nerd. I came at C++ self taught, but I came at it fresh, without "graduating" from writing C code. I've never regarded C++ as OOP, but rather GP oriented, although in truth it's a chameleon, and can do pretty much anything. However, I make heavy use of template based programming. So I didn't think I'd enjoy C. I figured I'd miss templates. I still do. There is some real ugly in terms of things you have to do with C that are elegant in C++. That being said, I don't miss them as much as I thought I would. Also, using the preprocessor freely is kind of liberating. In C++ I use it only as a last resort. In C it's more first class for me. Anyway, I like C. I do wish it had templates! And it's kind of verbose, which is hard on the fingers (everything has a handle) but also it wasn't a huge transition for me, since I do a lot of IoT coding I don't use things like exceptions, nor do I make heavy use of the STL, so C wasn't so bad. :)
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
If you like C, wait until you see C#! It's what C++ was meant to be.:cool:
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If you like C, wait until you see C#! It's what C++ was meant to be.:cool:
No it isn't. Just sayin'
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.