Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by blub 3688 days ago
C can be replaced with a reasonable amount of effort with C++.

But C++ won't be easy to replace, and I'm not sure it needs to be, since rewrites are highly risky, time consuming and disruptive. With some luck and depending on how the language evolves we might be moving from C++ to a safer C++.

1 comments

I agree, and that was one of my motivations to adopt C++ instead of C when Turbo Pascal wasn't any longer an option.

But using the C++ features that make it safer than C is only an option in small security motivated teams.

Sadly the majority of C++ teams, at least in the enterprise space, tends to use it as "C with classes" thus voiding most improvements the language has to offer over plain C.

You've hit on an important point - culture. Every programming community has it and it can enhance or hinder the adoption and usability of a language.

C++ is split between multiple factions. I'm doubtful that the one programming in C with classes is interested in learning e.g Rust.