[ale] Assembly & C

[Geoffrey]

synco gibraldter wrote:
> On 23 Sep 2003 at 17:26, Benjamin Scherrey wrote:
> 
> 
>> C is not the language to learn before learning C++. C++ is a
>> superset of C but C++ is also a language that enforces certain
>> constructs, implements OO capabilities, and supports abstractions
>> and programming concepts (via the compiler) that are far outside
>> the scope of C. To be a C++ programmer you need to approach it from
>> these directions otherwise you lose most of the benefits of the
>> language. To do this you will have to unlearn a lot of old-C idioms
>> so its counter-productive. C was designed effectively to be a
>> platform-independent or portable assembly language and succeeded
>> remarkably well which is why it is the language of choice for
>> operating system level development. C++, being a superset of C, can
>> be used as an even better platform independent assembly language
>> (as a language) but, unfortunately, ABI standards are just not
>> there to support this portability between compilers so C still
>> holds this turf rather strongly although it has made remarkable 
>> inroads in the embedded development market.
> 
> 
> i love this answer... very succinct.  i'm a long-time c programmer
> and i've done very little in c++ [i took an intro class in high
> school and i own 1 book that i won't recommend to anyone] and i have
> no intention of learning it further.  i'm sure i could do the same
> things in c++ i do in c but do them easier, but the transition would
> be such a drastic one that i haven't really wanted to.  it just
> "seems" like a lot of overhead knowledge to do the same things and,
> although i know this is just my perspective because i've been doing
> things the long way for so long, your analysis above is right on.

I'm with you.  C++ reminds me of cobol. ;)  To get the real bang from 
C++ it needs to take advantage of code reuse.  Small projects just don't 
get as much bang for the buck.  If you can endure the pain, long term 
gains can be had from project to project.

FYI, we were writing OO C long before C++ was in the real world.  It is 
a better way to code in many cases.

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey	esoteric at 3times25.net

Building secure systems inspite of Microsoft