[frde]

I don't write C / C++ so I'm not too aware of what's going on there, but wouldn't someone that wants those features just switch to C++? Is there any reason to change C at this point?

[Someone]

Switching to C++ gets you lots of things that aren’t “C-like” (that, of course, is a vague term that, as this thread shows, people will disagree about, but I think there’s consensus that C++ has many features that aren’t C-like), and may get you subtle bugs because of small incompatibilities between C and C++. For example, sizeof('x') is 1 in C++, but >1 in C because 'x' is a char in C++ and an int in C.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibility_of_C_and_C%2B%2B

[nequo]

Why is

  sizeof('x')

equal to 4 if

  char letter = 'x';

  sizeof(letter)

is equal to 1, just like `sizeof(char)`? If `'x'` is represented as an `int` in C, shouldn't `letter` in this example also be represented as an `int`?

[flohofwoe]

Many things that C++ added on top of C aren't actually improvements (I guess the most charitable thing that can be said about C++ is that it identifies and weeds out all the stupid ideas before they can make it into C).

[ho_schi]

A usual programmer doesn’t need most features of C++ but there are many important:

Generic-programming with templates, a usable std::string, smart-pointers, references, the howl standard-library (streams, file access, containers, threads).

The controversial ones seem to be exceptions and classes. Exceptions affect programming flow, exception safety is very hard and the runtime costs are an issue depending on the environment. Class and inheritance are complicated feature, operator overloading is one of the best stuff I’ve seen. But I can understand why many programmers don’t want handle all the special rules involving classes.

[pjmlp]

At least WG21 actually acknowledges solving security issues and UB problems are a real problem that needs to be sorted out.

Meanwhile, WG14, "not our problem ".

[rwmj]

C++ drags in a ton of other baggage that a large enough number of programmers don't want.

[trelane]

Especially when there's Go, Rust, etc. these days. There is so much legacy with C++ the language that it's pretty easy do do stuff subtly wrong if you're not rigidly careful and adhering to a style guide that forces you to only use the safer bits.

[hbossy]

C and C++ are separate languages and lots of people don't like C++.

[lou1306]

Maybe. But by reading the article one does get the impression that GCC devs (and C2X proposal authors) really like C++: the language is mentioned 16 times, and easily half of the features are lifted more or less as-is from there.

[frde]

I guess my question is: If you want `auto`, why put it in C instead of using C++ with no other C++ specific feature besides auto?

I get people don't like classes / templates / .. but there isn't any reason one has to use those.

[ori_b]

Yes, so why copy paste C++ into C?

[pmarin]

I wish the C Standard Committe stopped smearing all C++ bullshit in to C. Now that many of the C++ people who promoted those features are abandoning the ship.

It's what you get when your C compilers are implemented in C++.

[dale_glass]

Why "bullshit"? I looked at the article, and everything looks extremely reasonable, and desirable in C.

* nullptr: fixes problems with eg, va_arg

* better enums: Who doesn't want that? C is a systems language, dealing with stuff like file formats, no? So why shouldn't it be comfortable to define an enum of the right type?

* constexpr is good, an improvement on the macro hell some projects have

* unprototyped functions removed: FINALLY! That's a glaring source of security issues.

Really I don't see what's there to complain about, all good stuff.

[myrmidon]

This is a completely unfair mischaracterization.

A lot of these ARE relevant and useful improvements to the C language itself; constexpr reduces the need for macro-constants (which is nice), ability to specify the enum storage type is often helpful and clean keywords for static_assert etc. are a good idea too.

And getting rid of the "void" for function arguments is basically the best thing since sliced bread.

[pmorici]

I don’t understand why anyone would use the “auto” variable type thing. In my experience it makes it impossible to read and understand code you aren’t familiar with.