Re: C++ Family of Languages [was :ada and robots]

[Alan Brain <aebrain@dynamite.com.au>]

Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> Brian said
> 
> <<C++ is a very widely used *family-of-languages* which will be with us for
> a long time.  Certainly if I had my druthers, there would be little new C++
> <<
> 
> I don't understand the "family of languages" reference here.

Anyone who's tried porting large amounts of code in C++ will know what's
meant.

Case in point: I'm currently porting a large quantity of CodeWarrior C++
to VisualC++ 5.0. One example:

for (int i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i ++)
{
 //some statements
}
for (int i = 0 ; i < 20 ; i ++)
{
 //some more statements
}

On CodeWarrior, fine. But Visual C++ 5 barfs at the re-definition of the
(local) loop variable i. Yes, CodeWarrior (and I believe the draft ANSI
standard) has i being local within the loop, whereas VC++5 has strictly
only things within {} being local. OTOH for CodeWarrior 10(?) I need to

#include <bool.h>

Whereas VC++5 (and the ANSI draft) caters for type BOOLEAN, so barfs if
you include it. For strings, of course, I need to

#include <string>

for both, but also, for CWarrior I can then use

string ThisString;

whereas in VC++5 I need to

typedef std::basic_string<char> string  

or similar before I can declare a variable of type string. This isn't
too bad: it's just an instantiation of a generic string for characters.
Too bad use of templates in C++ is often considered Highly Advanced. 

These are not "old" compilers. They are at least industry standard, and
are probably ahead of the average. Every day, I miss Ada-83 more and
more and more... Except for Thursdays, when I teach Ada at ADFA.

I took the liberty of X-posting to comp.lang.c++ so you might get a few
more remarks on this thread.

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