C++ is (NOT) dead! Long live Cppfront!
Daniel Lob?o
???? | Backend Platform Engineer na Trustly | Entusiasta de Java e JVM. Especialista em desempenho e moderniza??o. Resolvedor de problemas e construtor de consensos. Casado e paiz?o de 2 garotos.
For too many years C++ has been "dead" or "dying" if we think about new developers, who mostly begin as web developers. In that context, C++ was never truly alive to be precise.
But again, when Carbon was announced that became news everywhere. Even web developers also heard and went to see this new thing to be the heir of the C++ throne, its successor.
Well, as with every year in CppCon, many amazing keynotes and other works were presented, and once again Herb Sutter brought the big guns. His keynote is really unique:
Instead of a new language, make a conscient decision to make the language better, going forward without keeping backward compatibility in a new syntax and file extension.
How so? Just put a number 2 after the .cpp, and you have .cpp2 and a whole new world of possibilities.
Simple, concise, and absolutely fantastic stuff. Please go see the talk if you can see it without subtitles.
I have the feeling it won't be as flashy as Carbon was, it won't become headlines all over the news.
But maybe, or just given enough time, it will have an even greater impact in the C++ world than the Carbon announcement. That's if we as a community give it a try. So if you use C++, go try Cppfront (https://github.com/hsutter/cppfront) with Compiler Explorer (https://godbolt.org/). And enjoy!