Re: [TUHS] C++ / Kernel

Derek Fawcus wrote in <20180824132244.GA2979(a)accordion.employees.org>: |On Thu, Aug 23, 2018 at 10:42:40AM -0400, ron(a)ronnatalie.com wrote: |> |>> Has anyone experimented with building Unix using C++, to take |>> advantage of strong typing? My guess is no--it would be a Herculean \ |>> task |> likely to introduce more bugs than it would fix. | |I recall that there was an attempt to do this with the Linux kernel, |but that it was abandoned before it was completed, this would have |been pre '98. Probably pre 2.4 Kernel. | |I have vague memories of discussions about it on the (kernel) mailing |list at the time, and that it was the original cause of the 'asmlinkage' |annotation on the C level syscalls - basically to turn off C++ name |mangling for when the assembler syscall table referenced the C routines. Also the often seen C paradigm of using "enum bla" in prototypes results in C++ compilation warnings/errors if the enum is actually used to define flags rather than a true enumeration, and there are not "bit enumerations" which would accomplish that. So you need to use an integer for the prototype and have lost all checking capabilities with a glance. I have never understood this deficiency. --steffen | |Der Kragenbaer, The moon bear, |der holt sich munter he cheerfully and one by one |einen nach dem anderen runter wa.ks himself off |(By Robert Gernhardt)