On 10/5/24 3:00 AM, Gavin Smith wrote:
This adds C++ code to the project!! This is very concerning. We
already have a lot of languages in the Texinfo project: TeX, Perl, C,
even JavaScript. I have no desire to understand or maintain C++ code
in Texinfo as well. It is also a lot for any new contributors in
the future to get up to speed with (as things are, there may never be
any such new contributors). Can we please find some alternative
for whatever this C++ code is used for?
As you might suspect, my concern is the opposite: Too much C and Perl - and not
enough C++.
There is no doubt in my mind that C++ is a more suitable language for the
texinfo project
than C or Perl. Nobody should be writing large chunks of code in C - it is
dangerous.
Luckily, C can be converted incrementally to C++: I did that for the DomTerm
backend.
Of course getting the benefits of C++ requires more thought.
Why C++ for texino?
(1) Organize code using class and methods.
(2) Simple inheritance, for example between output formats, and for input tags.
(3) C++ string handling insted of dangerous C string handling.
(4) Reuced risk of memory errors by using RAII:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_acquisition_is_initialization
and of course:
(5) Ultimately get rid of Perl, which fewer and fewer people know.
This stays away from the more complicated features of C++.
--
--Per Bothner
p...@bothner.com http://per.bothner.com/
