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by bstamour 3336 days ago
C supports variable-length stack-allocated arrays, while C++ doesn't. So code like

    void f() {
        int x;
        scanf("%d", &x); // read from user
        int numbers[x]; // dynamic
    }
is legal C, but not C++.

Also, the C "restrict" keyword doesn't exist in C++ either. Add in C's looser typing rules regarding conversions, and C and C++ are basically sibling languages at this point. Their common ancestor language being K&R-era C.

1 comments

> C supports variable-length stack-allocated arrays, while C++ doesn't. So > code like > > void f() { > int x; > scanf("%d", &x); // read from user > int numbers[x]; // dynamic > }

I just pasted this in a file (and added `#include <cstdio>`) and compiled with g++, and it gave no errors or warnings and produced a *.o file, so maybe it does work?

That's because gcc supports it as an extension to C++. It's not an official part of the language, and using it in C++ code is therefore not portable across compilers/platforms.
clang++ seems to work as well. I don't have a Windows machine handy to try MSVC, though