CppCon 2018: Nicolai Josuttis “The Nightmare of Initialization in C++”
Why Hacker News recommends it
Used mostly as a citation of C++'s historical baggage and complexity when HN criticizes or jokes about the language.
What it is
Nicolai Josuttis's CppCon 2018 talk walks through the many forms of initialization in C++, including uniform initialization, and how their rules and effects differ. He argues the situation is confusing enough that nobody can say what to teach beginners.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2019 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Cites db48x · 2021-09 · on “Transmission torrent client ported to C++”
Several CPPCON talks in recent years have reinforced that for me as well. [this video] , for example. Edit: I originally linked to the wrong video ( [LINK] ), which was a different talk by the same person.
Critical forrestthewoods · 2019-01 · on “Initialization in C++ is Seriously Bonkers”
C++ initialization is such a convoluted mess that CppCon was able to have an entire hour dedicated to "The Nightmare of Initialization in C++". [this video] C++ has a rigorous standard. There is no rule that wasn't added for a reason. Nor are there lines of code with which you can specify which rule it must follow. The path to hell is paved with good intentions. Just because each step is logical and defensible doesn't mean the end result isn't fire and brimstone. I believe that good things are more than the sum of their parts. You often hear this with respect to creative works like movies or games. I think it also applies to source code, language design, and much more. The flipside is that bad th
Critical kinjba11 · 2019-09 · on “Why Go and Not Rust?”
C++ has more historical baggage than any other mainstream language. Consider something as simple as initialization: [this video]
Critical michaelg7x · 2019-11 · on “Ask HN: How to approach learning C, C++, or Java on free time?”
I think this depends to some extent on the type of job you're going for, which might seem trite but a graphics role is going to be different from a systems programming role. I've been writing Java for a long time and tired after a while of the JVM "getting in the way", and the lack of bare-metal acceleration available. Eventually designing and working on zero-GC systems led me to wonder why we didn't just write it in a compile-to-native language in the first place. I skipped both C and C++ and started hacking on x86 and amd64 assembly. It turned out that approaching C after that was fairly straightforward, with the dark corners of the standard libraries forming the still fairly gentle but st
Critical hackingthenews · 2020-09 · on “C++20 has been approved”
Agreed. Just gonna drop this here: Nicolai Josuttis “The Nightmare of Initialization in C++” [0] [0] [this video]