Re: Will therefore GDB utilize C++ or not?

Sergio Durigan Junior
2012-04-05T03:31:05Z

On Wednesday, April 04 2012, Mark Kettenis wrote:

>> From: Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com>
>> Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:47:39 -0600
>>
>> >>>>> "Jan" == Jan Kratochvil <jan.kratochvil@redhat.com> writes:
>>
>> Jan> To C++ or not to C++? Unfortunately the discussion was here
>> Jan> already before and I am aware several contributors are not welcome
>> Jan> with it, I think it does not need to affect readability of C code
>> Jan> much, there is not enough workforce to rewrite all the GDB code
>> Jan> into C++ style anyway. Still C++ would help a lot, some kinds of
>> Jan> bugs are not solvable without it.
>>
>> I'm strongly in favor of C++ for reasons I'll lay out below.
>
> And my position on this has not changed: I'm strongly against. C++ is
> horrible language that should never have been invented.

I believe I understand your "rationale", but I would like to know if the
approval (by the majority) and eventual use of C++ in GDB (mentioning,
again, that GDB will not be rewritten in C++) would make you stop
contributing to the project.

I am not a maintainer, and I understand that C++ is not the best
language out there, but I've seen (more than once) other people saying
that "if the project ABC adopts XYZ, then I'm out". I don't think this
is the most reasonable thing to do, and I'm pretty sure this kind of
behaviour slows down some kinds of progresses (such as this C++ thing),
mostly because nobody wants to miss talented (and needed!) people
contributing to the project, I think. That's why I'm asking you this
question (but really, I would be asking to anyone objecting with
arguments like "the language is horrible").

Thanks,

--
Sergio