Re: A C++ API for the pcas

[wlupton@keck.hawaii.edu (William Lupton)]

Dear all,

Personally I have never used C++ and personally I would like to.

We had a bad brush with it where a programmer created his own little
world of classes, creators and destructors, no-one ever knew what order
anything was executing in and the whole thing got scrapped.

Thus there is a certain prejudice against it here on the grounds that
there's too high a risk that everyone will use it in different ways and
in complex ways and we won't end up getting the potential gains.
Probably a lot of us feel that the way that we write code is already
pretty object-oriented and has been for years.

On the other hand this can probably successfully be attacked as a
reactionary view (although you'd be surprised at how many places still
don't have ANSI C compilers readily available: it's hard to see how
people will switch to C++ before they have switched to ANSI C). I have
to admit considerable ignorance on the extent to which C++ is _really_
used in commercial and scientific tools these days. Perhaps it would be
good if I (and the rest of the collaboration) were educated. Clearly
there is a lot of usage of C++ at CEBAF and ANL and it would be good to
get a dispassionate view of the benefits which have accrued and of the
costs.

My biggest concern is that the use of C++ in the core of EPICS might
scare some people off. If this concern is unfounded then I have no
problem with it.

William