In 2019 I wrote a short survey of C constructs that do not
work in C++. The point was not that C is sloppy or that C++
is superior. The point was that C++ is not a superset of C,
and that C programmers crossing the border should know
where the checkpoints are.
C++ was a superset of C 30-ish years ago. Now, as the author correctly identifies, it is not as both have taken different evolutionary paths.?: has another execution priority.
Implicit cast scenarios are reduced in C++.
- C `_Atomic(T)` and C++ `std::atomic<T>`. C++23 has C compatible header `stdatomic.h` that defines `_Atomic(T)`, but it's still problematic
- C `_Noreturn/noreturn` and C++ `[[noreturn]]`. C23 `[[noreturn]]` makes them compatible
- C inline and C++ inline are different. Good news is their `static inline` are the same
- C has anonymous struct. C++ doesn't. Both have anonymous union though
This takes the cake.
jalospinoso•3d ago
Many of these differences are intentional and defensible from the C++ side. But some are still surprising because they invalidate patterns that were historically common, performant, or idiomatic in C.
The interesting part to me isn’t "C vs C++," but where the languages diverged philosophically: object lifetime vs raw storage, stronger type systems, implicit conversions, ABI and optimization assumptions, and the boundary between "portable" and "works on my compiler."
I’d also be curious which C constructs people still genuinely miss in modern C++. For me, restrict is still near the top of the list.
hgs3•29m ago
[1] https://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/www/docs/n3734.pdf
pjmlp•25m ago
C++ is 1990's Typescript for C++, while C folks still think is a portable Assembly instead of designed to an abstract machine model.
As such C++ community embraces high level abstractions and type systems improvements, whereas C wants to still code as targeting classical hardware.
pjmlp•27m ago