In article <i3e43n$v7...@lust.ihug.co.nz>, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <l...@geek-central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:
> In message <roy-6bcfa7.22564104082...@news.panix.com>, Roy Smith wrote: > > > C++, for all its flaws, had one powerful feature which made it very > > popular. It is a superset of C. > > Actually, it never was. Yes, there are a few corner cases where valid C syntax has different semantics in C and C++. But, they are very few. Calling C++ a superset of C is essentially correct. It is certainly correct from the level of a risk-averse development manager deciding if he or she is willing to use C++ for the first time. Fear of the unknown is a powerful deterrent. It's a lot easier to accept something like C++ because "it's just a superset of C, and we've been using C for years". I suspect the same effect contributed to Java's success as well. "Look, it's got curly braces and semicolons. It's just like C!" -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
