[delta_p_delta_x]

> Compile against an old libc

This clause is abstracting away a ton of work. If you want to compile the latest LLVM and get 'portable C++26', you need to bootstrap everything, including CMake from that old-hat libc on some ancient distro like CentOS 6 or Ubuntu 12.04.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: the Linux kernel may maintain ABI compatibility, but the fact that GNU libc breaks it anyway makes it a moot point. It is a pain to target older Linux with a newer distro, which is by far the most common development use case.

[dboon]

Definitely, and I know this sounds like ignoring the problem, but in my experience the best solution is to just not use the bleeding edge.

Write your code such that you can load it onto (for example) the oldest supported Ubuntu and compile cleanly and you’ll have virtually zero problems. Again, I know that if your goal is to truly ship something written in e.g. C++26 portably then it’s a huge pain. But as someone who writes plain C and very much enjoys it, I think it’s better to skip this class of problem.

[delta_p_delta_x]

> I think it’s better to skip this class of problem.

I'll keep my templates, smart pointers, concepts, RAII, and now reflection, thanks. C and its macros are good for compile times but nothing much else. Programming in C feels like banging rocks together.

[dboon]

Agree to disagree, then! Templates, smart pointers, and RAII have cost me far, far more than they’ve paid me back. You should write whatever feels good to you.

[delta_p_delta_x]

Happy to. If I may, I have an analogy:

C feels a little like survival mode in Minecraft; you have a set of very simple abstractions, a relatively simple language, with which one can build the world (and in many cases, we have).

C++ feels like a complex city builder, with lots of tools, designs, and paradigms available, but also allows one to screw up in bigger ways.