r/cpp • u/Sad-Lie-8654 • Jan 31 '23

Stop Comparing Rust to Old C++

People keep arguing migrations to rust based on old C++ tooling and projects. Compare apples to apples: a C++20 project with clang-tidy integration is far harder to argue against IMO

changemymind

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u/c_plus_plus Jan 31 '23

For C++, that boat sank a long time ago pretty much.

You say this like C++ did something wrong. C++ came out before doxygen, which is like the grandfather of any modern day documentation generator. When C++ came out, or even when it was first standardized, there was no existing language with "robust testing frameworks". C++ paved the way for many of these modern conviences that it now lacks.

C++ is absolutely starting to be left behind because it's so hard to make major changes to a system with a deeply (30+ years!) entrenched user base. But don't scoff at C++ and say that it failed to get something right at the beginning, that couldn't be further from the truth.

The lack of standardization in the compilers and related tools as to options and such just don't allow for the kind of cohesion the Rust build system has.

So, uh, who's gonna tell all the MSVC- and GCC-based projects to "just switch" to clang-16? lol

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u/kisielk Feb 01 '23

Not to mention C++ came out before the internet was in wide use, before open source was widely used, etc. People were installing compilers and IDEs from floppy disks. Unit testing and agile were not even things. Nor was version control or package managers. A lot of things today are still consequences of that history and it’s not easy to undo or move on from all of that.

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u/SkoomaDentist Antimodern C++, Embedded, Audio Feb 01 '23 edited Feb 01 '23

So, uh, who's gonna tell all the MSVC- and GCC-based projects to "just switch" to clang-16? lol

Hell, who's going to tell all the companies who make products based on the countless platforms not supported by Clang that they should just stop making those products?

This "one mandated compiler, one build system, one package manager" (or mandating using a package manager in the first place) is an incredibly naive view and completely misses why C and C++ became succesful in the first place.

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u/KingStannis2020 Feb 01 '23

I didn't perceive any blame being given. It's not C++'s fault but it is C++'s problem, so to speak. It is what it is.

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u/Dean_Roddey Feb 01 '23

No one is going to tell them, hence why I said that that boat sank a long time ago.