[Freeciv-Dev] Re: freeciv2 kernel,modules and rulesets

[Andrew Sutton <ansutton@xxxxxxx>]

> Obviously, and I get only those features I really want, I can see clear
> how it's done in reality and possibly tune it, I can see how exactly is
> it optimized and if the resulting code isn't bloated. In fact, I'm taking
> the examples from kernel. If you ever had a look at fs code, this is
> exactly the way it works (not only fs code obviously, basically most of the
> whole kernel). Why aren't they using C++ and they are reinventing it?

the linux kernel uses the c and gnu extensions to the c language for a couple 
reasons. first, c is the unix os language of choice. that's more of a 
historical fact than anything else. because of this it was originally written 
in c and will continue to be written in c. it was probably a pretty big step 
when the linux kernel adopted the gnu c extensions.

second, the kernel uses c because it doesn't require an accompanying runtime 
library. every program we write in userspace is automatically linked against 
libc (or glibc) for c apps and libstdc++ for c++ apps. so far as i know its 
not possible to separate c++ from its runtime library - where it is possible 
in c. libstdc++ is responsible for things like exception handling and rtti.

the reason that we don't want to do what you've done is that its reinvinting 
the wheel. writing a class in c++ allows you to pick and choose what you 
want, except it has a compiler to tell you when you're doing something 
stupid. it also eliminates the overhead of pointer functions. yes... you can 
make c look like c++ (sort of), but the reason we don't need to that is 
because we can avoid it.

i'd like to clear up any confusion here. since fc2 is going to be an OO based 
game and development effort, we won't be using any programming language that 
doesn't explicitly support OO programming concepts. there is absolutely *no* 
reason that we should spend time wrapping some language with preprocessor 
directives to make it work like another language. it's a waste of time and 
its going to cause more problems than it would solve.

andy