[virtualritz]

I recently picked up a C++ codebase I wrote maybe 30% myself and which was last touched in 2013. It's a plug-in for a DCC app. The 3rd party API it communicates with was changed so refactoring was inevitable.

Before I started refactoring I decided to make everything 'less ugly' by moving it to C++17. Which would also help me get back into the code, after eight years.

I spent two days on this. Then I decided: fuck it. I will RIIR™.[1]

It will mean that it will take me at least two months to get a beta of the product with feature parity vs. maybe a week to port the old codebase to the new API.

But on the other hand the C++ code is littered with stuff that 'just works' but can explode in your face and which eventually needs some safety net written around it. Which will likely take at least two months to do properly.

The truth is: after one and a half years of Rust C++ feels painfully ugly.

For context: I started with C++ with Borland's TurboC++ (moving from C) when I was 15. I used C++ for almost 30 years by now. It's about time.

[1] Yes, I did read http://adventures.michaelfbryan.com/posts/how-not-to-riir/