Re: C++ in the kernel

At 4:13 PM +0100 10/30/07, Maciej Sobczak wrote:
Alfred Perlstein wrote:

(I reply also to some previous mail which I didn't get from the list.)

Which came from me... I probably should have sent it to the list,
but at the time it seemed something was haywire with my mail. An
earlier message I had sent to the list didn't show up for quite a
long time.

That way we don't get caught up in
problems when, say, the ABI's for the official C++ language are
changed, and we don't want to make major ABI changes in the middle
of a STABLE branch.

Do you often change the compiler in the middle of a STABLE branch?
If not, then why are you worried about changes in the language?
They will not magically propagate to the compiler.

Pick the compiler version and stick to it for the whole branch lifetime.

Yes. Just Like Perl. What harm harm can possibly come to sticking
with Perl4 in a stable branch? And certainly we've seen major
incompatible changes to C++ at the *ABI-level* in the past.

It might be prudent to say we're building a new language patterned
on something *other* than C++, just to make it clear that we won't
be tied to whatever developments coem up in the world of C++.

Why are you worried about developments that can come up?
Do you try to protect yourself from new developments that
can come up in C as well? You don't own neither C++, nor C.

Yes, I know we don't own C++. That was my whole point. It seems
to me that PHK wants to stick with be very careful with what we
introduce to kernel-level programming, and that seems quite
reasonable and prudent, IMO.

I *like* playing with a wide variety of languages when it comes
to user-level applications, but I can see that we need tighter
control when it comes to the kernel.

--
Garance Alistair Drosehn = drosehn@xxxxxxx
Senior Systems Programmer or gad@xxxxxxxxxxx
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy, NY; USA
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