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0 pointscodr75mo ago0 comments

And then they introduced coke at committee meetings, the crazy shit they've been coming up with lately shows absolutely zero understanding of the complexity issue.

0 comments

jcelerier5mo ago

and yet client code can be incredibly simpler nowadays thanks to all these features.

I can write this simple struct:

    struct Person {
      std::string name;
      my_complicated_date_type date_of_birth;
    };

and get serialization, network interop, logging, automated UI generation, hashing, type-safe IDs, etc. without having to write an additional line of code. Twenty years ago you had to write 2000 lines of additional boilerplate for each data type to get to the same place.

billfruit5mo ago

As some not into modern c++, how would you get all functionality? Is there any guide or documentation yout could point to?. It is fascinating if all that could be done with just the struct defenition.

jcelerier5mo ago

The actual feature comes in C++26 (static reflection) but there are polyfills that allow to do it today (boost.pfr, https://github.com/qlibs/reflect) ; concepts are also a great help: https://cnrs.hal.science/hal-04090584/file/icmc2022template....

jstimpfle5mo ago

You would have added some codegen, should be possible to write a codegen framework from scratch in 2000 lines even.

Arguably the result would have been easier to read and maintain and not as slow to compile.

jcelerier5mo ago

> Arguably the result would have been easier to read and maintain and not as slow to compile.

having been through I don't know how many codegen frameworks I thoroughly disagree, those are a complete pain to maintain as soon as you want to support mac / windows (esp. MSVC) / linux / wasm and various brands of cross-compiling. Everything that can be done in the target language, should.

1 more reply

jeffrallen5mo ago

Or you might have used table based data structures, like TeX and the lunar lander did.

You do the best you can, today, with what you have, and then you ship it and get on to the next challenge. Same now as it always was.

codr7OP5mo ago

Simpler to write maybe, reading it and following all the threads to figure out what the code is doing, not so much.

The problem with C++ is that you end up having to take most of its features into account, one way or the other, and it quickly gets complicated; at least that's my experience and the experience of many others.

ux2664785mo ago

Now instead you have 25,000 lines of code that you literally cannot debug.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

jcelerier5mo ago

and yet client code can be incredibly simpler nowadays thanks to all these features.

I can write this simple struct:

    struct Person {
      std::string name;
      my_complicated_date_type date_of_birth;
    };

billfruit5mo ago

jcelerier5mo ago

jstimpfle5mo ago

You would have added some codegen, should be possible to write a codegen framework from scratch in 2000 lines even.

Arguably the result would have been easier to read and maintain and not as slow to compile.

jcelerier5mo ago

> Arguably the result would have been easier to read and maintain and not as slow to compile.

1 more reply

jeffrallen5mo ago

Or you might have used table based data structures, like TeX and the lunar lander did.

You do the best you can, today, with what you have, and then you ship it and get on to the next challenge. Same now as it always was.

codr7OP5mo ago

Simpler to write maybe, reading it and following all the threads to figure out what the code is doing, not so much.

ux2664785mo ago

Now instead you have 25,000 lines of code that you literally cannot debug.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse