C++ syntax without C++

Don Y · 2013-11-06T00:10:18+00:00

Hi, What, specifically, can I use of C++'s syntax without incurring the associated "costs" that C++ brings with it? I'm ideally looking for criteria that I could *mechanically* enforce (a preprocessor to scan for "features" that are "beyond C" in cost/complexity and flag them for excisement). Of course, this bends the issue of "implementation defined" in some cases -- I'll worry about specific toolchains, later. E.g., using "//" comments should have no impact on the code generated. I *suspect* I should be able to use namespaces and similarly not changed the code perceptibly -- beyond what simply prepending the namespace's identifier to all identifiers *IN* that namespace? The exception syntax is particularly appealing. But, I suspect that implementations can vary a lot and bring other cruft into the equation once I start down that path. What else is "free"? Safe? I.e., disallowing the "class" keyword probably goes a long way to keeping cruft out of the binary... are there other insidious things that can drag cruft back *in*?? (e.g., startup code) Thx, --don

Nov 06, 2013 201 Replies

Rate this thread:

tridac 12 years ago

I think at the time I was still in the mind state of 'assembler is best for everything' and this made sense, since I was far more fluent in assembler than C. If you have developed an infrastructure around working with asm and have a lot of general purpose library style src code from previous projects, you can often get things working as fast as programming in a hll. Projects were often much simpler then as well, memories space was smaller and processors were much less pwerfull.

Having said all that, I wouldn't consider asm for any project these days, other than startup and maybe some interrupt level code...

Chris

Embedded System Hardware & Software Engineering Oxford England 44 (0)1865 437 787 ** Remove the meaning of life to reply...

Vote

tridac 12 years ago

Haven't even started to look at this yet, but one of the difficulties is the lack of a machine locally with a 5.25" floppy, though that is minor. Have an old Deskpro 386sx in store that has both earlier and 1.4meg floppy drives, though it hasn't been powered up for years. There are free utlities online to run under dos which may work, though fwir, some pc drives are not capable of reading the data format at all. I guess there's always an Ebay Apple II and Kermit as a last resort.

I guess you must remember the Programma PIE full screen editor ?. Shear luxury with a Videx 80 column card and all written in 6502 asm. I spent hours disassembling it to find out how it worked. :-)...

Chris

Embedded System Hardware & Software Engineering Oxford England 44 (0)1865 437 787 ** Remove the meaning of life to reply...

Vote

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required