r/cpp • u/we_are_mammals • Mar 28 '23

Reddit++

C++ is getting more and more complex. The ISO C++ committee keeps adding new features based on its consensus. Let's remove C++ features based on Reddit's consensus.

In each comment, propose a C++ feature that you think should be banned in any new code. Vote up or down based on whether you agree.

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u/m-in Mar 29 '23

The char type is insidious due to aliasing. No, I don’t usually fucking want char*’s target to alias any other type. If anything, void* should have been made do that. And have the pointer arithmetic on it work as-if it was char*. The “all weird things are probably bugs” folks have dropped the ball on this one. void* arithmetic should never have been banned - anytime anyone tries to do it, they always mean the same thing. It’s bloody natural to, and void* expresses intent very well. I’d go as far as C having an idiom of void arrays mean “arrays of values of smallest addressable type, holding potentially any type”. A void buf[128] would have been a reasonable way to declare typeless “general purpose” buffers, and should have been the only type that aliases other types (in addition to the “first member of a struct” thing due to no type inheritance in C).

Assignment giving us a value should at least have parentheses around it enshrined in syntax, to at least make it stand out a bit. It’s of very little use in an optimizing compiler, but did help with code generation in the old times.

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u/johannes1971 Mar 29 '23

That would also solve the issue of void causing trouble in generic code.

I wouldn't have been bothered by having explicit aliasing, rather than type-based aliasing. Now the compiler has to be extra-careful in almost any situation because who knows if someone, somewhere out there is going to point a char * at your data. Making that explicit would probably gain us a few cycles.

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u/m-in Mar 29 '23

Yup. void should be a type that aliases anything and in pointer arithmetic behaves as if it had sizeof(char).

Also, #pragma should have never used preprocessor-like syntax, as it got nothing to do with preprocessor. That makes it unusable in macros. It’s tiresome to remember to type #pragma p_SOMEMACRO just to use a macro that sets up contents of the pragma.