[guerrilla]

> I agree on C++ being the worst of both worlds for many people. You get abstraction, but also an enormous semantic surface area and footguns everywhere.

Not only that, but who even knows C++? It keeps changing. Every few years "standard practice" is completely different. Such a waste of energy.

> Java is interesting because the core language is indeed small and boring in a good way, much closer to C than people admit.

I know. I used to be a Java hater, but then I learned it and it's alright... except the whole no-unsigned-integers thing. That still bothers me but it's just aesthetic really.

[nayuki]

> no-unsigned-integers [...] still bothers me

I like the lack of unsigned integers in Java. It simplifies the language while only removing a tiny bit of functionality. You can emulate almost all unsigned math using signed operations, whether you use a wider bit width or even the same bit width. The only really tricky operations are unsigned division and unsigned parseInt()/toString(), which Java 8 added to smooth things over.

https://www.nayuki.io/page/unsigned-int-considered-harmful-f...

[1718627440]

The reason for using unsigned is not that some operations need it, it is so to declare a variable that can't be negative. If you don't have that, then you must check for a negative number in every single interface.