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by dhhfss 612 days ago
This depends on the platform. Many embedded systems are based on arm these days and have modern toolchains available.

I cannot remember the last time I saw C99 used. C codebases generally use C11 or C17, and C++ code bases use C++20

2 comments

Unless you can vouch for the C++ compiler, the best C++ portable code can offer today is C++17.

Also 8 and 16 bit embedded toolchains are certainly not on C11 / C17, they can hardly afford full C89.

SDCC is a niche C compiler for 8-bit CPUs and is more uptodate than MSVC ;P

https://sdcc.sourceforge.net/

That's the nice thing with C: it's much easier for small teams to fully support than the latest C++ standards.

Now try to use it on the embedded deployments that require certification.
Most devices that are 6+ years old (as far as I can tell) use C99. If not C89. And/or C++17, if that.

That's A LOT of devices out there. A lot of which still get maintenance and even get feature updates (I'm working on one right now, C99).

So the claim that "C codebases generally use C11 or C17, and C++ code bases use C++20" intuitively sounds like totally untrue to someone working in embedded C/C++. I've been doing this for 15+ years and I've never touched anything higher than C99 or C++17.

If you're talking about gaming, sure. But that's not "C code bases generally".