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Re: Java vs C++

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On 02/05/2011 12:15 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> In the beginning, Java was supposed to be a much simpler language than C++,
> in some sense leaving out all the unnecessary complications, while keeping
> the worthwhile parts.
>
> This PDF copy of “The Java Language Specification”, 3rd Edition, that I’m
> currently reading, has 684 pages. By comparison, the paper copy of “The C++
> Standard” on my bookshelf has 782 numbered pages. As you can see, Java is no
> longer that far off C++ in complexity.
>
> Most of that complexity seems to be caused by the addition of generics to
> Java. This was something that C++ had from the beginning. It was one of the
> unnecessary complications that Java left out to start with. But now they’ve
> changed their minds, and put it back in. But since they need to be backward-
> compatible with existing code, they’ve had to add extra complications that
> C++ never had to deal with.
>
> Bjarne Stroustroup must be chuckling over his hot cocoa...

C++ did not have generics from the beginning. It was added afterwards 
and initially without any proper specification of (separate) compilation 
and linkage aspects.

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Re: Java vs C++ Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-02-05 15:02 +0100

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