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The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

devblogs.microsoft.com

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Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#31

Post by 9o1d »

Plot twist: the publisher just looked into the future. I’m currently building an EBNF parser for my project, C³ (C cubed), which allows you to define arbitrary grammar at the very beginning of a file to seamlessly mix strings and syntax from Python, JS, or any custom DSL.

While C++ was just a simple iteration, C³ aims to be a paradigm shift. If you see JavaScript DOM manipulation code on a C++ book cover, it’s not a stock photo blunder anymore — it’s just a valid source file after a custom EBNF header. The project is currently in private development, but I'm considering launching it as an online service. Stay tuned!

https://gitlab.com/9o1d/C3v3

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#32

Post by epolanski »

pjmlp wrote: post #12
koolala wrote: post #9

At least the JavaScript image is excusable since most implementations are made in C++.

And some of us expect that candidates have at least read the C++ addons documentation chapter.

Which kind of candidates, for which kind of position?

I have not seen much, if any, JavaScript developers touching C++ modules much beyond library authors needing bindings for SQLite, etc.

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#33

Post by pjmlp »

epolanski wrote: post #32
pjmlp wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some of us expect that candidates have at least read the C++ addons documentation chapter.

Which kind of candidates, for which kind of position? I have not seen much, if any, JavaScript developers touching C++ modules much beyond library authors needing bindings for SQLite, etc.

Backend development with node.

Knowing how to write native modules is one blog post less on "We rewrote X in Y" on HN frontage.

You might argue why not using something else in first place, well in consulting quite often we have tl adapt to the customer IT stack.

Concrete example deploying into Vercel Functions, and there is a small performance boost required.

Nowadays I would rather push for Go or Rust runtime, but until this year they weren't officially supported, as they were community runtime builds.

In any case, I expect someone doing backend development to actually understand performance, and how to improve it.

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#34

Post by thunderbong »

fiedzia wrote: post #19
seanhunter wrote: post #5

It reminds me of an incident involving an old colleague of mine at some kind of graduate recruitment fair thing. He walked past a stand which was trying to hire engineers which had some code on the wall when the following exchange happened: Recruiter: Hey there! Do you know what this is? Colleague: Err, … It *looks* like some sort of network protocol Recruiter: No, it’s *COMPUTER CODE*

I like to pause movies when some code is shown and see what it is. Apparently you can break into pentagon by knowing basic sql and high-level employees have alternate life writing tcp implementations and graphics libraries.

Also hackers in movies never use a mouse!

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#35

Post by epolanski »

pjmlp wrote: post #33
epolanski wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which kind of candidates, for which kind of position? I have not seen much, if any, JavaScript developers touching C++ modules much beyond library authors needing bindings for SQLite, etc.

Backend development with node. Knowing how to write native modules is one blog post less on "We rewrote X in Y" on HN frontage. You might argue why not using something else in first place, well in consulting quite often we have tl adapt to the customer IT stack. Concrete example deploying into Vercel Functions, and there is a small performance boost required. Nowadays I would rather push for Go or Rust runtime, but u…

This sounds reasonable if your use case is squeezing more horsepower out of Node applications and the JavaScript part has already been pushed to its limits.

As someone who's done lots of backend development _in_ node though, I'm not really proficient in C++ enough nor I ever had teams able to maintain such modules.

I'm not criticizing your approach, mind you, it's absolutely understandable, just uncommon for someone to be really proficient at both languages.

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#36

Post by globnomulous »

thunderbong wrote: post #34
fiedzia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to pause movies when some code is shown and see what it is. Apparently you can break into pentagon by knowing basic sql and high-level employees have alternate life writing tcp implementations and graphics libraries.

Also hackers in movies never use a mouse!

Alng the same lines: movies and tv shows have taught me that there are no door knobs in the future.

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#37

Post by amiga386 »

thunderbong wrote: post #34
fiedzia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to pause movies when some code is shown and see what it is. Apparently you can break into pentagon by knowing basic sql and high-level employees have alternate life writing tcp implementations and graphics libraries.

Also hackers in movies never use a mouse!

I beg to differ, here's Scotty using one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqiDu1BQXY

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#38

Post by amiga386 »

We have always had slop.

There have always been people trying to push low-effort, low-value things as high-value things by copying the superficial aspects of high-value things. People literally do "judge a book by its cover", and can be tricked into buying it even when the contents are worthless.

People in a bookshop don't want to have to read entire chapters of each book they're thinking of buying in order to be sure they're all legitimate books of value. They want the bookseller to have done that for them, and know every book in the shop had at least some effort put into it.

The internet is not a bookshop. An enshittified platform like Amazon is not a bookshop. If a slopmaker can pay a platform to tout absolute slop, you now can't trust the platform. It's all so tiresome.

It's now just easier to perform that dishonesty and waste even more people's time than ever before.

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#39

Post by tialaramex »

uwagar wrote: post #20

i so wanted it to be the cover of stroustrup book :P fwiw, i stopped keepin up with c++ in 2003. saved my sanity!

Stroustrup's book is named "The C++ Programming Language" in imitation of the (much superior) "The C Programming Language" aka K&R.

This book's title is a little different.

Re: The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover

#40

Post by hilariously »

cout wrote: post #26
fiedzia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to pause movies when some code is shown and see what it is. Apparently you can break into pentagon by knowing basic sql and high-level employees have alternate life writing tcp implementations and graphics libraries.

Occasionally there are some real treats in those snippets. I remember being floored when Trinity exploited a real ssh v1 bug in Matrix Reloaded.

My memory is probably faulty but didn't she use nmap too?
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