Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 03:01:53 +0200 From: Joao Schim <j.schim@netmaniacs.nl> To: Benjamin Lutz <benlutz@datacomm.ch> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why is not more FreeBSD software written in C++? Message-ID: <20060416030153.0dd838e8.j.schim@netmaniacs.nl> In-Reply-To: <200604151313.32519.benlutz@datacomm.ch> References: <200604151313.32519.benlutz@datacomm.ch>
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On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 13:13:29 +0200
Benjamin Lutz <benlutz@datacomm.ch> wrote:
> Something occurred to me just now. I've been looking at the summer of code
> page, where I noticed the "Rewrite cvsup in C" entry. When Perl was removed
> from the FreeBSD base, the general notion was to rewrite any Perl scripts in
> sh or C.
>
> Why is it that C++ is not used for our programs? The C++ compiler is in the
> base and built by default, and the OOP paradigm is a nice one, that many
> programmers, especially the younger ones (like me :) ) are probably more
> familiar with than the tricks and techniques used in C to achieve good
> efficiency.
>
> My first guess is that it's a habit. People dealing with the FreeBSD source
> code are used to C, and therefore use that for their apps. If it's only that,
> there'd be no good reason for not writing a tool like cvsup in C++, right? Or
> is there a more technical reason?
>
> Cheers
> Benjamin
>
Probably tradition (K&R) is the core reason for the lack of a substantial C++ codebase.
Although the difference in compile time between C++ and traditional C code is
noticeable, it is on modern systems not that much of an issue.
(especially when considering we don't compile our system once a day)
However, what can be seen as a big plus for traditional C is that the knowledge is
quite widespread, what makes the code very maintainable within un*x circles.
>From what i've heard the people from SUN decided to go for GNOME as their linux desktop
system (long time ago) because they just happen to have more C programmers than C++,
i guess the same paradigm applies to the FreeBSD base system.
One might even go as far to say that if you can't do it in C what the heck are you
doing in the base of an operating system...
......not saying that I would go as far ;)
Kind regards,
Joao
--
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